


The Life In Your Years

by FivePips



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, DI Remus, Death Eaters, Everybody Lives, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Nanny Sirius, Organized Crime, Police investigation, Praise Kink, Raising Teddy, single dad, teacher Sirius
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-08 21:50:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 36,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17394332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FivePips/pseuds/FivePips
Summary: Remus is a busy single dad and Lily is going back to work, so he's about to face some problems with child care. Thankfully, Lily and James have a solution -- their old friend has just moved back from The States and is looking to do something while he gets his affairs in order. Of course, things don't go smoothly for a number of different reasons.“In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”– Abraham Lincoln





	1. Chapter 1

Remus watched as Teddy chased after Lily and James’ cat. His little hands were reaching out for the black, white, and grey tabby who did not look impressed with Teddy’s interest. Teddy nearly did a tumble into the grass but righted himself and continued his mission to pet the kitty.

“It’s getting hard. I’m so busy with work but I need to spend time with him. I’d hate to put him into daycare just yet and even if I did, that’s not always enough time.” Remus sighed. He was a single working father since Mary, his girlfriend, passed away during Teddy’s birth. It was the most bittersweet day three years ago. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get on with it afterwards but he did.

Now he was a DI working his arse off to make sure Teddy had a good life. For a while Teddy stayed with Harry since Lily was at home until he went off to school. The main issue was Haz was about to begin school in a few weeks time and Lily was going to go back to working as a GP.

“Look, I know it’s not your birthday or a holiday but what if we gave you a gift?”

Of course this was a way for James Potter to give Remus money without it being charity. It’s not as if he needed the charity, Remus made decent money as a DI for the Met. He just didn’t have the type of money that these two were apparently thinking about. Remus was a little scared to ask what they had on their minds. Sometimes their gifts could be ridiculous and elaborate. At least they were asking him this time. “Potters, what are you plotting now?”

“I’m thinking that — Lily and I are thinking that we’d like to get you a nanny. I know it’s expensive but we want to give it to you. Whatever the person’s rate is, we want to cover it.” James had gods knows how much money he had been given in a trust fund from his parents. Even if he didn’t have a trust, Remus was sure his parents, Effie and Monty, would give James anything to help Remus out.

It was becoming more and more difficult to get someone to watch Teddy whenever he needed it. With Lily going back to work, it was going to be damn near impossible. The idea of having to drop Teddy off at his mam’s completely out of the way of his commute was insane. It would even be worse if he were called in at the last minute. “I’m not going to reject the idea outright.”

“What if I knew someone who would be a brilliant nanny?” Lily asked with a grin.

“Who on earth do you know? All our friends have full-time jobs. And we all have the same mates.”

“Not all, remember us mentioning Sirius Black?”

Remus nodded. Sirius used to be one of James’ best mates at his boarding school. After they graduated Sirius went off to The States to study to become a teacher. Last he knew, he was teaching kindergarten over there. He was on and off in touch with James but went away and stayed away because he apparently was running from his terrible family. “Yes, he’s back in London?”

“Just moved back,” James said with a grin. “He’s taking the year off teaching to get things sorted but he’s looking for something like this to do. He asked if we needed help minding Harry.”

“We said no but we suggested that you might be in need of an extra hand.” Lily shrugged. “You obviously don’t have to pick Sirius but we know he’s trustworthy and reliable so it might help ease some anxiety.”

“Didn’t he nearly set your dorms on fire once?” Remus questioned. He remembered some of the stories James and Lily had told him about Sirius in their younger years. Sirius used to be a big prankster, as was James. He was mostly giving them a hard time because he was sure the man did some growing since then.

“He was fifteen!”

“I know, I know. If you two trust him then I do.” Remus said. Lily and James were his best mates. They were there for him whenever he needed from the first awkward days at uni to the heartbreaking, world shattering day of Mary passing away.

“Oh, you know who he’s related to?” James asked.

“Who?”

“Tonks! She’s his cousin.”

Tonks was dating their friends’ nephew, Charlie Weasley. Charlie was the nephew, but close in age, to Fab and Gideon Prewett. The Prewett brothers went to uni with Lily, James, and Remus. They were a fun group of people that Remus decided he didn’t see enough of lately. “I didn’t realize that.”

“She doesn’t know him too well, so it’s not like she’d be talking about him a lot. The Blacks are a very, er, things aren’t great and her mum was kicked out of the family even before Sirius.”

Remus wanted to ask more but knew that it wasn’t his place. Just because he was mates with Lily and James didn’t give him the right to put his nose in business it didn’t belong in. “So, you think I should meet with Sirius?”

“Yes, if you’re interested. We’ll pay the whole thing or a fraction, whatever you need. You just don’t need to be stressing about childcare.” Lily assured him and Remus didn’t want to argue it.

***

A few days later, Remus was waiting in the coffee shop Sirius had suggested they meet at. It was nice and even had a little nook for kids to play in. Teddy immediately went for the books and sat on one of the fluffy chairs with one about a bunny rabbit. Remus took a seat at the table next to the area. He knew what Sirius looked like, he had creeped on his social media a few times even before this. Remus wanted to know what his mates’ mate was like… he was also bloody gorgeous.

Sirius Black looked more like a model than a school teacher. He was tall with long black hair and stormy grey eyes. He had the cheekbones and jawline of an aristocrat with pouty lips. His light tanned skin was flawless with the exception of a couple of freckles. Remus knew that he shouldn’t be admiring the looks of the man who may be taking care of his child but it was hard not to. He had eyes that could see very well, there was no denying the man’s good looks. It wasn’t as if Remus was going to do anything about it.

Even knowing the beauty that Sirius Black possessed, Remus was still surprised to see how handsome he was in person when he walked in the door wearing tight black jeans, a green v-neck, with a leather jacket over it. His long black hair was pulled back into a bun. “Remus! I’m not late am I?” The man’s voice was deep and a little raspy.

“No, I’m just early,” Remus stood up to shake his hand.

“Blimey, you’re a tall one. James always said you were tall,” Sirius commented looking at him with wide eyes. He wasn’t exactly much shorter than Remus.

“Ha, yeah, he’s always angry that he’s not the tallest around me.”

“Our mate Pete, at Hogwarts, he was the shortest out of Frank and us. But he was taller than all of us right up until the summer of fifth year.” Sirius laughed. “He was pretty grumpy after that.”

Remus snickered as he felt Teddy wrap his arms around his leg. His son was most likely very curious who this bloke talking to his father was.

“Oh, you must be Teddy, hello. Wow, you’re a mini version of dad, aren’t you?” Sirius knelt down to look Teddy in the eye.

“I am?” Teddy asked quietly, observing Sirius.

“Mmhmm. You have the same eyes and hair. I’m Sirius by the way. I know your Uncle James and Aunt Lily.” Sirius smiled widely.

“You do? We never knew you before.”

“I was living in the United States since before you were born.” Sirius informed him.

“Oh.” Teddy let go of Remus’ leg. This was a good sign that his son liked Sirius.

Remus took this chance to take a seat instead of looking down from his full height at the two. He was curious what this was going to bring.

“Do you like doggies?” Teddy asked eagerly.

“I do, actually. I plan on getting a dog someday soon.”

Teddy’s eyes widened, “Da thays we can’t have a doggie ‘cause he doesn’t have time to take care of it. Can I thee your doggie?”

“When I get one, sure, if your Da is okay with it,” Sirius nods.

“Da?” Teddy pouted at him with his wide hazel eyes.

“Sure, Teddy, when he gets one. That’s fine. We’ll go see it.”

Teddy jumped up and down with the pure excitement that only a child could have. Remus wondered the last time he was so happy over something so simple.

“Why don’t you see if there’s a book about a puppy on the shelf?” Remus suggested to his son. He was beginning to feel bad because Sirius was kneeling for so long. Teddy would have kept him there chatting about dogs all day if Remus didn’t put a stop to it.

“Okay! Can Thirius read it?” He asked with a little lisp.

“That’s up to him, go on, Ted.” Remus encouraged his son who looked at his father then Sirius and nodded before going off on his mission.

Once Teddy went to the bookshelf right near Remus, Sirius stood up then took the seat closest to Remus at the table. “Cutie.”

“He is, can be a terror when provoked. Like his father.” Remus joked and Sirius laughed.

“I don’t believe that one bit. You’re both not exactly intimidating.” Sirius snorted.

“I should take offense but I won’t.”

“That’s good then. So, you want a nanny?” Sirius leaned on the table

“Lily suggested it. She was watching Teddy but she’s going back to work now. It’s a pain in the arse to cart him to and from my mum’s flat. It’s way out of the way from my place to the Met.”

“Oh, right, DS?”

“DI,” Remus corrected him and Sirius looked impressed.

“Awesome!”

Remus chuckled because he sounded very American when he said the word.

“I’m trying to find something to do in this coming off year from teaching. I have to get some things sorted but nothing I can’t do while taking care of your sprog. What are you looking for?”

“I can work odd hours and I’m on call quite a bit. I work homicides and serious crimes.”

“Wow, okay. I’m pretty much free whenever. We could work something out for me being on call too for you and Teddy if you want. I can also work whenever you need me. I can start when you need too — god, I sound desperate. I just really hate being bored.” Sirius chuckled as Teddy came over holding on to a book entitled “This Is Not My Dog”.

“It’s fine, Sirius. Here, Teddy,” Remus picked Teddy up and sat him on his lap. “We’ll read this in just a second, okay?”

“Okay!” Teddy opened the book and began poking at the different textured pages of the book.

“I can write up a schedule for the next few weeks and we can agree on pay. Maybe Sunday we can sign something?”

“I’m supposed to go to dinner with Lily and James, we could do it before that.” Sirius suggested to Remus, glancing at Teddy prodding at a puffy thing that was supposed to be a tail.

“Sure, what if you come over you could see the flat. I could show you round. Then we could go to the Potter’s together because I was also invited to dinner. Normally am, it’s a tradition.” Remus explained to him.

Sirius frowned, “Oh, I didn’t mean to intrude on your—”

“Don’t be daft, it’s not a problem. I’m sure you’ll be sick of us and not want to join after the first Sunday.”

“And I’m sure you’re wrong about that, isn’t he Teddy?”

“Can you read now?” Teddy asked, not caring for whatever conversations were being had by the adults at the table.

“I can.” Sirius picked up and proceeded to read the book with perfect prosody to keep Teddy giggling and interested. Remus knew at that moment that he was doing the right thing. He wished he could have stayed home with Teddy but that wasn’t life. Plus, he loved his job. Sirius seemed like a decent person. Lily and James trusted him too. This was probably the best thing he could do.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's going to have angst, my dear readers. Don't worry, there will also be plenty of fluff.

Sirius hummed to himself as he took the stairs two at a time up to Remus’ flat. He was more than thrilled to be back home in the UK after well over a decade. It was time for him to come back and rid himself of his old demons for good. He was also thrilled to be working for Remus Lupin and his little boy. The kid was a doll and loved dogs, so that was an instant connection. The father, well, Sirius thought he was good looking. Remus was a DI, so that was brilliant. Plus, he still trusted James and Lily’s judgment after all these years.

Staying in the States was mostly for Reggie and to stay as far from his parents as possible. His brother didn’t want to return to the UK after he finished uni, so Sirius decided to stay close to him. Reg had been treated like shite by their parents on a regular basis because he was trans. They refused to acknowledge who he was. As much as they hated the fact Sirius was gay, they said it was less of a bother because it wasn’t “obvious”. Growing up in the house was difficult. The Potters and his Uncle Alphard were all there for him but it didn’t make it much easier.

Luckily, their uncle took care of both the boys when Sirius declared he was leaving the family following graduation. Regulus was only 16 but Sirius’ parents didn’t put up a fuss about getting him out of the house. They cared far more about Sirius and Regulus never returning. The only issue with Uncle Al, was that he lived across the ocean. Sirius liked it, really. He loved living in New York City, it was thrilling and he had so much fun. But his heart always belonged in London. After hearing his mother died, two years after his father, he felt like he was able to return now.

When he got back, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do but it didn’t take long for James and Lily to come calling with an offer. Sirius needed to square away his parent’s estate, as well as get everything all done in order to teach in the UK, so being a nanny seemed like the perfect deal. It only sweetened when he met Teddy and Remus the other day at the coffee shop.

Sirius knocked at the door and a moment later Remus answered. He was tall, which Sirius commented on stupidly in their last meeting. He felt like a complete idiot when the words had come out of his mouth but Remus looked amused. Sirius always liked dating blokes taller than him but there weren’t many as he was above average height himself. Not that he was dating Remus, it was just something he liked. God, he needed to stop thinking about Remus like that. “Hi, Remus.”

“All right, Sirius?”

“All right,” He smiled then stepped into the flat.

“Teddy’s napping. He was being a grumpy earlier and he needed one desperately.” Remus laughed. “I’m sure he’ll be out when he hears you. Hasn’t shut up about your future dog since we saw you.”

“Sorry,” Sirius followed Remus out of the entryway and into the sitting room. Next to that was the kitchen. It was all very cozy and there were books and kids toys everywhere. Sirius liked it. He could see himself being able to feel at ease there.

“Nothing to be sorry about. He’s been after me to get a puppy since he could talk. No, probably before he could talk,” Remus laughed as they went into the kitchen. “Tea?”

“Sure.” Remus nodded and went to fill the kettle. “You can take a seat if you want.”

Sirius did so at the small table in the kitchen where there were some papers.

“So, the price is good? I’ve never had a nanny before — Lily refused to take any money so I had to pay her in chocolate biscuits.”

“Oh, I might ask for some of those instead.” Sirius joked. In reality, with the money from the estate and his uncle, he could go for a long while without having to get a job but he needed something to occupy him. Plus, he enjoyed working.

“I’ll be paying you fair wages but I can offer those as a bonus.”

“I’m in.” Sirius laughed as he watched Remus reach up for the tea mugs. “So, I’ll be staying here some nights, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll show you the guest room. It’s also an office so it’s tight but the bed is comfy. I’ve been making lists of emergency numbers and routines.” Remus points to the papers in front of Sirius.

“You’re thorough,” Sirius said as he looked over the papers. It had everything from recipes that Teddy liked to how to get him to bed. He was used to a classroom full of 5/6 year olds, one three year old seemed like a walk in the park. He knew that there were going to be challenges and Teddy wasn’t always going to be sweet as he was the other day but he felt sure that it wasn’t going to be too difficult. “I’m assuming that’s a habit from your job.”

“Probably but I’ve always been that way. James used to give me shite for how much time I spent in the library. I used to take the best notes. Not that I didn’t know how to have fun but—”

“Da!” Teddy’s voice rang out as the sound of little feet came running down the hallway.

Sirius chuckled when the little boy with curly, tawny hair came around the corner. Said hair was sticking up in all sorts of directions on one side while the other side was flattened against his head. On that same side of his face he had lines from his pillow. Clearly, he had a decent nap.

“Da, is time — Thirius!” Teddy stopped mid-sentence when he realized the other man was in the room. “I thought you were gonna wake me up!” He complained, crawling onto Sirius’ lap.

Sirius laughed, picking the child up the rest of the way so he wasn’t kneed in any unpleasant places. “We were going to wake you up after all the boring adult things.”

Teddy looked at him with inquiring eyes as the kettle whistled. “Are you coming to Auntie Lily’s?”

“I am. I’ve known them longer than your Da has known them.” Sirius informed Teddy. “Your Uncle James was my best mate all through school growing up.”

“Then you moved.”

“Yes, then I moved.”

“To the thates.”

“Yes, to The States.” Sirius nodded, watching Remus walk over to them with two mugs of tea.

“So, Teddy, are you happy to have Sirius watch you when I’m working?” Remus asked as he set Sirius’ mug down.

“YES!” Teddy clapped his hands together. “We can go to the park?”

“Sure, we can go to the park.”

“Li-ba-ary?”

“I love the library, of course we can do that. There’s a lot we can do when dad’s working. He gave me a list.” Sirius said, grinning over at Remus who rolled his eyes.

“We’ll have our tea and then Teddy and I can show you the flat then we’ll sign the little agreement.”

“Sounds good,” Sirius agreed with the other man.

The three sat in the kitchen as Remus and Sirius sipped at their tea. Teddy didn’t move from Sirius’ lap. The child talked excitedly about dogs then legos then robots, his hands flying out at random times to punctuate the joy. Sirius figured it was going to be fun to take care of a kid who was so interested in so many things. He could find endless activities for them to do. Sirius’ biggest worry was going to be making sure the flat was clean for Remus when he came home. That was always his weakest point.

Once they were done with their tea, Teddy and Remus showed Sirius around their flat. Remus showed Sirius where the fire extinguisher, Teddy’s favorite food, and what the WiFi password was. Teddy showed him the spot where he spilt his chocolate shake in the living room and then where all his favorite toys were in his room. Remus also showed Teddy’s bathtub and toothbrushing stuff was.

The tour concluded with the extra bedroom. “So, it’s technically an office,” Remus said, opening the door of the small room. There as a twin bed tucked into one corner and a messy desk and shelf tucked into another. “I figured you might want to know about this in case I have to be out at night. The bed’s very comfy, even if small.”

“Thanks, maybe I’ll leave some clothes here just in case.” Sirius knew that Remus’ job could lead to some strange hours. He didn’t mind because he didn’t have much going on in his life at the moment. He was trying to resettle into England and all his friends here were ones he hadn’t had much communication with for a long while now. Sirius certainly didn’t have any boyfriends to worry about.

“That might be a good idea.” Remus nodded as Sirius heard Teddy dump out what sounded like legos in his room. His father looked down the hall with a little exasperated sound because they were about to leave for the Potter’s. “My hours are all over the place, especially if the case is huge and getting a lot of notice. I try to be as normal with my schedule as I can but,” Remus shrugged.

“Teddy’s going to be very proud of his father for the amazing work he does. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” Sirius assured him, leaning against the wall.

“Thanks for that,” Remus nodded.

***

The Friday after Sirius made everything official with his nannying job for the Lupins, he was over Lily and James’ house. Lily invited him over when they had dinner on Sunday. She was having Ron and Ginny Weasley as well as Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger over to celebrate the last weekday off before school began.

Outside, Lily and Sirius sat at the small wrought iron table while the kids played some make-believe game the Hermione seemed to have made up. Teddy was mostly busy looking at worms in the flower bed but he didn’t seem vital to the going ons of the game.

“Ready to go back to work, Lily?” Sirius asked his old friend. Lily Evans Potter was still as fiery and witty as he remembered her from their days at boarding school. He honestly couldn’t believe that she and James were still together. She hated him for a while they're at school because he was a massive git — rightly so. Sirius didn’t even like himself at that point. Not that he wasn’t glad they worked it out. They were both great people who seemed to mean the world to one another.

“Yes, god, I am. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so very happy and privileged to have had the time to be with my child like this when he was growing but I miss my job. I’m lucky McGonnagall was so quick to take me back into the practice.”

“I’m sure you’re an amazing GP.” Sirius concluded a long time ago that Lily would probably be amazing at anything she did.

“I’ve stayed up to date on things and I’ve published while staying at home but I still worry I’m not going to know what the hell I’m doing.” She laughed a little nervously, running a hand through her auburn hair. “How are you doing back here?”

“Fine, I guess. I mean, I haven’t done much, have I? I’ve only seen you and James so far a couple of times. I do have something to occupy my time thanks to you two.”

“Why don’t you go see Marlene and Dorcas? They live close to Remus. Frank and Alice too!”

“They do?” Sirius asked. He and Marlene had tried to date in fourth year then both quickly realized they were gay and proceeded to be close friends until Sirius left for The States.

“Yes! It’d be brilliant, they’d love you to see you. Your cousin, Andromeda, she’s around and her daughter is dating someone who’s mutual friends. I think there’s a lot of relationships you could establish here.”

That scared Sirius. He was never any good at relationships — platonic or romantic. It had been years since he had trusted anyone outside of his brother and Uncle Al. He had cut off his old friendships here in the U.K. ages ago. James and Lily were the only ones who managed to keep in touch with him but they practically forced themselves into his life. “Do you, ah, do you see Peter ever?”

“No,” Lily said with a dark look in her eyes.

Peter used to be their best mate. That was until he got close with some nasty people involved with Sirius’ horrid family. Peter ended up going to prison at one point. It was safe to say that Black’s money wasn’t something that came from savory dealings. Various agencies were always looking into them but the Blacks and friends were too smart to get caught with anything big — only the small stuff like Peter was taken in for. He wondered if Remus knew about this. Surely James and Lily had to have told him about it.

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“I couldn’t even tell you. I don’t remember, really.”

“He must be deep into whatever it is my family got up to.” Sirius spoke quietly. He couldn’t wait to be rid of all of his family’s money. His mother left him money and property, he had no shares in the company. He wasn’t sure why she did that but he was glad he didn’t have to deal with that part of it. Sirius planned to give away most of the money and sell the property. He wanted nothing else to do with it and neither did Reggie.

“I wouldn’t worry about him or them. They have other things that matter.”

Sirius wondered if he should tell Remus about his family in case the Potters didn’t tell him or he didn’t make any connections to things he may have heard in the news — or even at New Scotland Yard. “Does Remus know?”

Lily nodded in confirmation.

“Oh, good, I think.” Sirius was glad he didn’t have to tell the other man. That may have been an awkward conversation. “I can’t believe he still wanted me to look after his son.”

“You aren’t your family, Sirius, that’s why you were gone for so long. Remus knows that. He doesn’t give a shite. Plus, your parents are dead and it’s not as if you’re interested in joining your horrid cousins that are involved.”

“I know,” Sirius sighed.

“Let’s talk about something a little more fun, huh?” She smiled mischievously.

“What’s that, Lily?”

“When I first met Remus, I thought you and he would be perfect together.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

“Of course, I know you think he’s handsome. He probably thinks the same about you. You two have matching personalities, if that makes any sense. You’re not the completely the same but you’re not too different either.”

“So, you decided to let me nanny for me to find out?” Sirius scoffed. This would be something James and Lily would do.

“That was like, the second motive. The first was dealing with Remus’ childcare. That really is the most important thing here.”

“At least you're upfront about it.” Sirius snickered and shook his head. “Nothing is going to happen between us because that would be weird. Plus, I don’t date. I hate relationships and I don’t want to worry about hurting the sprog.” He couldn’t imagine getting involved with someone with a kid. Not that didn’t want a kid but he didn’t want to hurt them in case the relationship didn’t work out.

“Don’t worry, I’m not forcing anything. I just thought it might be nice if that happened.” She shrugged. “I’ve already told James he cannot go around trying to make you two fall for one another.”

Sirius snorted a laugh because he knew James would love to set Sirius up with someone, especially someone like Remus Lupin. The man couldn’t help himself with wanting everyone to have romantic endings. “Thank you for that.”

“Thirius!” Teddy spoke eagerly holding up his hand. “I got a worm!”

“Wonderful, mini.” Sirius chuckled as Teddy came over to him with his outstretched fist. The worm was probably dead by how hard he was holding it. “Worms are cool but we should leave them in their homes, right?”

“Oh,” Teddy frowned.

“It’s okay. It’s neat,” Sirius assured as he stood up. “Come on, let’s go put him back.” He picked Teddy up after standing.

“I didn’t mean to take it from it’s home.” Teddy said as they walked him back over to the Potter’s flower bed.

“Don’t worry Teddy, we can put it back. Everything can always go back home.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Mam:** How is the nanny????

 **Remus:** Good. I mean, it’s only day 4

 **M:** Want me to check on them   
tomorrow?

 **RL:** God. No.

 **M:** Just making sure

 **RL:** On my way home.

 **M:** Does he cook?

 **RL:** Only for Teddy

 **M:** Teddy likes it?

 **RL:** So far. DAY 4.

 **M:** Can I meet him?

 **RL:** To scare him?????????

 **M:** To see who is caring for   
my grandchild.

 **RL:** He’s fine. I told you.

 **M:** He’s also a Black.

 **RL:** I know.   
Not involved in the fam.

 **M:** Still.

 **RL:** Old friends w/Lil and James.

 **M:** I know.

 **RL:** Stop worrying. I’m a DI

 **M:** Can’t stop everything.

 **RL:** Going underground.  
Love you.

 **M:** Love you too.  
Stay safe.

Remus laughed to himself as he waited for the train to take him home. His mother was obsessed with the fact that Sirus was tied to the infamous Black Family. Remus knew there was nothing to worry about. Sirius had not seen his family since he was sixteen, well over a decade ago now. James and Lily said his relationship with his parents was frayed even before that. Plus, the Black Family wasn’t as active as they once were to Remus’ knowledge. He was sure there were still plenty of shady dealings but he wondered if they were being done overseas. Whatever was going on wasn’t on his radar, nor anyone else that he worked with at the moment.

There wasn’t anything to worry about. Sirius was brilliant with Teddy. From the first moment Remus saw them interact, he knew that it was the perfect fit. So far, when Remus came home Teddy was fed and happy but he would turn sad when he realized that Sirius had to go home. The second day, Teddy cried when Sirius left. Remus chose not to tell Sirius that because he didn’t want the man to feel bad. His son was just attached, and that was okay. Even after Sirius went back to working as a teacher once things settled, he’d stay still in their lives. James and Lily were not going to let him run off.

Soon enough, Remus arrived at his flat and opened the door. It smelt like Sirius had been cooking all day. Teddy was giggling in the living room and Remus could hear Sirius’ low voice rumbling. It sounded like he was reading a story. This was confirmed when Remus came into the room to find Teddy and Sirius sprawled out on the floor with a book about a dinosaur at the doctor’s office in front of them.

“Da!” Teddy jumped up and ran over to him, forgetting about the book for now. “Da, Padfoot took me to the park today.” He said. Lily had called Sirius Padfoot when they been over there last week at Sunday dinner. Apparently Teddy liked the name so much that he decided to use it. It was an old nickname James had given him. James loved doling out nicknames, he was Moony for a regrettable choice he had made one night at uni after too many drinks.

“Oh, really? Did you have fun?”

“Yes!” Teddy wrapped his arms around his dad’s neck for a tight hug.

“We did some dog watching,” Sirius laughed, standing up and stretching. “He’s fed and watered.”

“Thank you,” Remus chuckled, setting his son back down.

“There’s leftover chicken and pasta in the fridge. You could have it now or take it for lunch tomorrow if you want.”

“Brilliant,” Remus said as Teddy picked up the book and went towards his toy bin in the corner of the room.

“How was your day?” Sirius asked.

“Oh, it was all right,” Remus shrugged a shoulder. He had wrapped up a case that day of horrifying rape and murder that turned his stomach. He normally was good about not getting attached but this one got to him.

“Don’t like that expression on your face. Look, let me heat you up your supper and we can talk.”

“You—”

“No, come on, it’s fine. You had a hard day. I’m not going anywhere tonight.” Sirius shook his head. “You’re paying me more than enough. I can stay to put together a plate for you and heat it.”

“Fine,” Remus said a little begrudgingly as he followed Sirius into the kitchen.

“Want to talk about it?” Sirius asked softly, going towards the refrigerator.

“No, not really. It was a rough one, is all. Sometimes you get ones that get your more than the others. This one was one of them.”

“I don’t know how you do it. Isn’t it draining to work in serious crimes?”

“It can be but it’s rewarding at the same time. I mean, I don’t know how you work with kids all day. Not my son, of course, but when you have a classroom full of them. We all have different abilities, right? I’m sure neither of us can imagine what it’s like to be an accountant.”

Sirius laughed, scooping the pasta out into a bowl. “Very true. I would die at a desk job. God, how do people do that?”

“I have no bloody idea.” Remus shook his head. The thought of having a monotonous job was mind-boggling. He loved routine to a point but he liked challenge a bit more. The only time he wanted to have some type of routine was with Teddy at home. “Then again I have no bloody idea how you deal with so many small children. My one is just enough, thank you.”

Sirius grinned as he set the bowl into the microwave. “They’re fucking hilarious. I can’t tell you all the amazingly funny things I’ve heard because it would just take too much time.”

“That’s why you teach? They’re funny?” Remus chuckled and Sirius took a seat at the table with him to wait for the microwave.

“No, it’s an added bonus. Sort of like the chocolate biscuits I’ve been promised from you at some point.”

“It must be interesting, teaching kids.”

“It is. Rewarding, funny, stressful. I’m sure I get a lot of the same things out of it you get— good and bad.”

Remus nodded, “I don’t get too much funny. Though, I do love black humor and my partner is pretty good for it.”

“Ha, excellent. I love Black humor as well.” Sirius winked as the microwave went off.

“Do you always make name puns?”

“Mate, if you grew up with Sirius as your first name you would too. Your lucky that people can only make wolf jokes with yours. Plus, not everyone would make the wolf connection for you. I had to have some sense of humor with my name.” He explained, going to get the food.

“That is very true but my name is still an odd name. I used to hate my mum and dad for my name, you know?”

“You got over it?”

“Yes, it’s an interesting name. I like the uniqueness of it now. I also like the history so it’s fitting.”

“Why didn’t they go with Romulus? That’s the one that did the whole thing, right?”

“Da had a dark sense of humor too,” Remus snickered. “I mean, Mam’s right behind him though.”

“You’re dad passed away?”

“When I was nearly twenty. He had cancer. It was hard but not unexpected.” Remus explained. That was when he and Mary had become close. They were still just mates then but she helped him a lot.

“I’m sorry.”

“Should I be sorry about your parents?”

Sirius made a noise in his throat as he stirred the pasta. He set it back in the microwave, “No, you shouldn’t. I haven’t seen them in six or seventeen years or something like that. I left when I was sixteen and haven’t seen them once since.”

“Ah, yeah, James and Lily have said. I’m still sort of sorry.”

The other man turned around and leaned against the counter. His face pinched and his arms crossed in front of him. “Thanks. Why haven’t you asked me about them?”

“Not my place. I’m not investigating your family or anyone involved. I’m not even your mate, really. We’re acquaintances and you watch my son. I mean, my mam would love to chat about it if you want,” Remus scoffed. “Lily and James told me enough about you that I highly doubt you want a thing to do with your family.”

“You’d be right, of course, but I doubt everyone can take me away from the Blacks.”

“I’m not everyone.” Remus shook his head as the microwaved beeped again. “I trust you with my son. Lily and James trust you. I don’t have any qualms about it. If I did, you’d know.”

Sirius’ shoulders looked as if there was some tension eased as he went for the bowl again. “Thanks for giving me a chance, Remus. Does your mum want to meet me? I don’t mind if it’d make her feel better.”

“Don’t worry about her. She’s always worried about everything for no reason.”

“All right, here’s your dinner. Enjoy it. I’ll go make sure mini hasn’t destroyed the living room.”

“I’m going to eat on the sofa. You should go home, it’s been a long day.”

Sirius nodded, handing the steaming bowl to Remus. “I’ll say goodbye to Teddy then.”

Remus followed the man out to the living room with the bowl warming his hands. He plopped himself on the sofa as Sirius said goodbye to Teddy. Thankfully, there were no tears today so Remus turned on the telly as the man left.

“So, you like, Sirius, love?”

“Yes!” Teddy said excitedly from where he was playing with some building toys. “Padfoot took me to the park and we saw the doggies today.”

“That’s very exciting.”

“Why does Padfoot have to go home?”

Remus laughed, “Because Teddy, this isn’t his home. He lives somewhere else.”

Teddy frowned. “I wish he lived here.”

***

Sirius thought of himself as a generally simple man even people around him thought he was far more complex or needy. He loved the easy pleasures in life. A strong cup of coffee on a cold morning. A lie in on a Sunday. A picture drawn by his students. These were easy things that made him happy. Over the last two weeks since beginning his new job, one of those pleasures was hearing Remus Lupin laugh. This laugh seemed to come from deep in his body and he wrinkled his nose (much like his son) and deepened his dimples when it happened. Sirius prided himself on getting one out of him each night he came home.

“Oh God, Sirius, that’s bloody hilarious,” Remus laughed, hitting his hand on the table at a joke Sirius had made offhandedly about the bartender who had been chatting up Remus.

Tonight, they were out with Lily, James, Marlene, Dorcas, and a fellow he didn’t know before, Gideon. He hadn’t seen Marls and Dori in ages. They both greeted him with big hugs and kisses. They didn’t make him feel bad about not being around for so long. It was easy to fall right back in, if not a bit scary. Growing close to people was going to happen, it was inevitable right now. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted it.

He did want to keep making Remus laugh, which was an issue. “You’re such a twat.”

“I know,” He winked at Remus.

“You work with children. You work with my child. I should be concerned with you being a role model.”

“I’m not like this with kids. I save it all up for the adults I know.” Sirius said with a snort of a laugh.

They enjoyed a few more drinks but eventually Remus said he needed to get home. He had had a long day, working from before dawn. Sirius knew because had woken up to go over to get Teddy up. Sirius was lucky to get a nap in. Gideon left with him and Sirius didn’t think much of it because he thought the bloke was just happening to leave as well. Sirius thought he’d be going home to relax and get a nice long sleep in because the sprog was off at the Weasley’s.

He was somewhat wrong about that at first.

“They’ve been shagging off and on for ages.” James explained in a little bit of a huff. Sirius knew the huff was because he was set on Remus and Sirius ending up together one day. The man with the bad hair had not said anything about it but Sirius knew that James was rooting for it to happen. There were these odd looks and sly remarks. If Remus noticed, he didn’t say a thing or react.

“Are they dating?” Sirius asked, hoping he did not sound like he cared. It was just that he had never heard Remus mention a boyfriend. He disliked how he felt jealously churning in his chest. He did not want to be entangled in a relationship with Remus. Sirius was also enjoying watching Teddy and he didn’t want to give Remus a big headache when it came to childcare.

“No, just sex. Remus doesn’t want to bother with trying to find a partner with Teddy being so young. I mean, he and Gid are mates. Fuck buddies, is that still a thing now?” Lily pondered.

“Oh yeah, it’s totally still a thing.” Marlene waved a hand and Dorcas raised an eyebrow. “What? It’s not like I have one. I’m just up to date on the goings on of the single world.”

“That sounds too complicated,” Sirius shook his head. “I mean, what if they catch feelings? You’ll ruin a perfectly good friendship.”

“Or they’ll fall in love.”

“Gideon’s in love with this bloke Caradoc but for some reason nothing has happened. Gid is not falling in love with Remus and I doubt Remus will fall for Gid either. They’re too different. But I hear they have fantastic sex.” Lily laughed and glanced at Sirius. He recalled what she said about their matching personalities but she wasn’t as bad as her husband.

Thankfully the conversation ended up veering away from Remus and his sex life and to other things, like Marlene and Dorcas’ upcoming wedding. They told Sirius, not asked, that he was coming to the wedding. He had no say in that at all.

When Sirius got home that night, he felt like he had an odd mix of emotions going on. He was nervous about kindling his old friendships but was still excited about it. He had the same feeling about his new friendship with Remus. What was weighing on him the most were those other feelings that were creeping around for the DI. Sirius couldn’t remember the last time he fancied anyone and he knew he fancied Remus, which was extremely inappropriate for the situation.

He pondered this all as he got changed into his PJs and then took out his contacts. Once he was comfortable in his glasses, old tee shirt, and flannel bottoms, he picked up his phone to call his brother.

“What’s up?” Regulus asked, sounding every bit American. “It’s midnight there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I just got in from the pub with some people.”

“The Potters?”

“Mmm, Marlene and Dorcas too.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Remus and his fuck buddy Gideon.”

“Yikes, Sirius, you can’t fancy the bloke you work for.”

“I know that!” Sirius complained. “I’ll get over it.”

“I know, you don’t do relationships.” Regulus repeated in a bored tone. “Your luck for fancying this bloke, huh?”

“How do you stop fancying someone?”

“No clue, normally they do something daft, right? Or they act like an arsehole. Is he an arsehole?”

“Not that I’ve seen lately. I mean, he can be a bit sarcastic but not in an arsehole way. What if I can’t stop fancying him? I’ll have to stop working for him. God, I’ll have to come back to the States. He’s best mates with Lily and James.” Sirius rubbed his forehead. “I don’t like being in relationships.”

“I know, Si.” Regulus sighed. “Relax, don’t jump to anything drastic. How do you like the job?”

“I love it. I mean, I miss being in the classroom but it’s good. I’ve been going through the place on Grimmauld in my free time.” Sirius disclosed. Grimmauld was where he and Reg mostly grew up. It was filled with an immense amount of antiques that were probably stolen or acquired in ways that Sirius did not want to know about. He had no idea what to do with these things. Sell them was the obvious answer but he wasn’t sure he wanted to get caught selling stolen goods.

“Find anything interesting?”

“Mother kept all of our old family photos and our rooms look the same as they did when we left.” Sirius said.

When he had walked into their rooms the other day, it was as if he was in some strange altered universe where nothing had changed. He couldn’t comprehend why his mother kept all their old things. Most days it felt like his mother didn’t even care to have he and his brother around.

“That is strange. Do you think that she thought we’d come home?”

“I don’t know, but it seems so. They were desperate to have someone take over the business, now it’s on no one.”

“Who is running, er, things?”

“God, don’t know. Riddle, maybe?” Tom Riddle was a name that Sirius remembered around the house when he was a teen. The bloke was a tad bit younger than his parents and very smart according to his father. Sirius remembered Orion saying that if Sirius couldn’t shape up then Riddle would be a good heir. Maybe he made good on that promise.

“I hate talking about this.”

“Me too. I don’t even really know what the fuck they got up to but I just know it wasn’t good.” Sirius remembered the shady people who came around the house when he was growing up. It was organized crime but they ran a legitimate textile business. Thinking about it all boggled Sirius’ mind because he had no insight into the whole thing. “You know, the more we talk about this, the more I’d rather talk about my non-crush on Remus.”

Regulus snickered, “Yeah, I don’t blame you. You’re okay, though? It’s not hard being back there?”

“It’s hard but it’s not bad. I’m happy and can’t wait to be rid of all this shite from our parents.”

“Soon enough. When you are, I’ll come over and we’ll have a proper party.”

“That sounds like a very good deal to me.” Sirius smiled. He loved his brother and he was so happy they were so close. If he stayed, he doubted they would have such a close relationship. Sirius didn’t even want to think of the type of person he would be.

He certainly wouldn’t be taking care of Teddy Lupin and cooking extra dinner every night for his handsome father.


	4. Chapter 4

“You don’t really mind, do you?” Sirius asked Remus the night before he was set to look at the dog he was interested in. He had been watching Teddy for over two months now. Things were going very well in terms of working for Remus. The only tears Teddy seemed to have were when he was tired and didn’t want Sirius or Remus to go, depending on the time of day. Every so often he would get grumpy because he was tired or hungry but those were all things that Sirius could deal with easily.

“No, not at all. As long as you clean up after the dog and you don’t mind watching a child and a puppy at the same time.” Remus chuckled before taking another bite of the salad Sirius had made for him.

At first, Sirius was only making dinner with Teddy but by day three, he was making extra for Remus or something else for him to eat when he got home. Remus told him he was going to pay him more. Sirius told the other man that he’d only take chocolate biscuits. Sirius thought it was daft that he was making food and Remus would have to come home after a long day, dealing with god knows what to make his own dinner when Sirius could easily do so.

“Mate, I used to have twenty kids in one room and a pet iguana. One kid and one dog is nothing. I think I might get an older dog too. Bringing Teddy will be helpful.”

“As long as you don’t let the dog eat him, I don’t mind,” Remus said as Teddy crawled on to the sofa between them.

“Doggie tomorrow?”

“Yes, Sirius is getting a doggie tomorrow,” Remus smiled at his son.

“Are you excited, mini?” Sirius asked, standing up.

“Yes!” Teddy bounced on the cushions.

“Good,” Sirius grabbed his coat from where it was draped over the back of the sofa. “We’ll go before lunch tomorrow, okay?”

Teddy nodded enthusiastically.

“Be good for your da tonight and get plenty of rest. Only good kiddos who go to sleep at their bedtimes can help pick out dogs.”

Remus grinned at him, his dimples showing, then looked into his salad bowl. Why did he have to be so damn adorable? Yes, Sirius was still crushing on Remus. Reg kept telling him it was extremely inappropriate and Sirius couldn’t agree more with him. At the same time, Regulus encouraged the relationship. It was frustrating because Sirius couldn’t remember the last time he felt like this about someone. Of course Lily had to be right about their compatibility — that didn’t make things any easier.

“Okay, Padfoot!” Teddy plopped down on his bottom on the cushion next to his dad.

There were a few times, like at this very moment, where Sirius wanted to stay at the Lupins. He wanted to fall on to the sofa (after taking out his contacts and getting into something comfy) and watch telly with Teddy and Remus then read Teddy a bedtime story. After, he could snog Remus which would lead to —

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Pads,” Remus said, interrupting his thoughts. He used the shortened version of Sirius’ old nickname. Sirius wished he didn’t like it so much.

“You certainly will.”

Sirius went home, thinking of the Lupins the whole way. It had only been a few months and he knew that even after his time watching Teddy was over, he wanted them in his life. Of course, Lily and James would never have it any other way. They were going to be mates in the long run, whether Remus and Sirius liked it or not. Sirius liked it, though. He liked it far too much and that worried him greatly.

The next day he went over to the Lupin’s before Remus was due to leave for work. The other man was looking a little sleepy when Sirius found him in the kitchen staring at the coffee maker. He was in his usual trousers, button-down, tie, and nice shoes. Remus barely spoke in the mornings, especially when he hadn’t had coffee yet. Sirius went to getting breakfast together for Teddy instead of making small talk. The boy was about to wake up any moment because he normally did right before Remus left for a normal shift.

“Need anything before you go?” Sirius asked, attempting being helpful with the man.

“No, thanks though,” Remus yawned as he took his red and blue travel mug out from under the coffeemaker.

As he did, Sirius heard the bedroom door open down the hallway then Teddy’s little feet against the wood. Sirius opened the breadbox so he could get a start on Teddy’s toast as the boy said goodbye to his dad. Sirius smiled when Teddy wrapped his arms around one of Remus’ long legs. He looked half asleep, much like his father. The boy was basically a clone of Remus, mini was a very appropriate nickname he bestowed on Teddy.

“Da, I don’t want you to go.” Teddy complained as he did from time to time. He was usually good about saying bye to his dad for the day but sometimes he was not in the mood to let his father go anywhere.

“Well, if I don’t go, you won’t be able to go find a dog with Sirius.” Remus knelt down and picked his son up.

“Okay,” Teddy sighed. “I wish you could come with us.”

“I’ll see the dog tonight, right?”

Teddy nodded before giving his dad a big hug. Sirius smiled as he looked at two of them. His father never loved him like that, neither did his mother. He didn’t get love and affection until he met the Potters. Effie and Monty grew to love him like he was their own. Then Al took care of him and Reg like they were his children. But Sirius never had this when he was a kid.

After Teddy let Remus go, the DI left for his job and Sirius got Teddy squared away. Once he was fed and changed, they started their trip to the animal rescue Sirius had been researching. There was a large black mutt there he had an eye on. The thing looked a bit like a bear mixed with a wolf but supposedly had a wonderful temperament. He was a young adult, not a puppy, which was what he wanted. Sirius had shown Teddy a photo of the dog the other day and the kid was thrilled.

“Okay, here’s Snuffles,” The woman at the rescue said as they got to Snuffles’ cage.

“Oh! He’s big!” Teddy bounced on his toes. The dog was so big that he towered over Teddy.

“Is he good with kids?” Sirius asked. It did worry him that the dog was so big in comparison to Teddy.

“Kids, cats, large families. Snuffles is an easy going dog.” The woman explained to them as Snuffles just stood there with a pink tongue lolling out of his mouth and his tail wagging. “Honestly, this is the first time he’s stood up when someone has come over to his cage. Normally have to put his lead on before he actually goes anywhere.” She chuckled.

“Okay. Ah, Teddy, let me meet him first then we’ll see if you can pet him, right?”

Teddy frowned but nodded.

The woman opened the cage and let Sirius go in. He held out his hand and Snuffles sniffed then licked it. Sirius chuckled then started to pat him. “You’re very sweet, aren’t you?”

“Thnuffles!” Teddy said eagerly.

“All right, come here, mini.” Sirius said, feeling confident in the dog's behavior. The woman was right about him being laid back.

Teddy came over and carefully pet the dog. Snuffles in turn laid down on his belly and put his head on his front paws. Teddy continued to run his little hands over the dog’s fur. Sirius decided to take a picture of it to text to Remus.

“Do you want to take him on a walk?”

“I think so,” Sirius nodded.

“I love Thnuffles,” Teddy declared. Sirius did too.

Needless to say, Sirius and Teddy went home with Snuffles that afternoon. They stopped at the pet store to buy all types of toys and food for the dog, enough to keep at his flat as well as the Lupin’s. Teddy picked out a giant dog bed that looked like a cupcake to put in the living room of the Lupin’s that was large enough to fit Snuffles and Teddy. Sirius hoped that Remus didn’t mind that one.

Soon enough they got home with Snuffles to have lunch. They spent the day playing with the dog. By the time Remus got home, Teddy was reading to the dog in his dog bed, his head resting on Snuffle’s middle. Teddy was looking nearly as tired as he was that morning.

“So, you got the big dog?” Remus laughed. Snuffles barely looked over at Remus when he came into the living room.

“I did. His name is Snuffles and he’s a big oaf. He’s been lounging around since we got home.”

“Hello there, buddy,” Remus knelt down to scratch behind Snuffle’s ears. “You’re a good boy.”

Sirius tried not to think about the fact that he wished Remus was running his fingers through his hair calling him a good boy. That hit one of his kinks on the head a little too much for the moment. He really needed to stop this attraction to Remus before it got even more out of hand.

“Teddy picked this bed out. I can bring it back to mine if you want. The cupcake might clash with your interior.”

“No, it’s fine.” Remus shook his head, standing up after he dropped a kiss on the top of Teddy’s curls. “Happy?”

“Very, always wanted a dog.” Sirus nodded as Remus came closer to him. “How’s your case going?”

“Fine, think we got the person we were looking for.” Remus said in a way that Sirius knew he didn’t want to or couldn’t talk much about it.

“I made soup in the crockpot, it’s all ready for you when you want it.”

“Thanks, Sirius, you’re brilliant.”

Sirius tried very hard not to preen at that but he felt himself blush. Remus raised an eyebrow but Sirius didn’t give a chance to say anything. This really wasn’t any good.

“Okay, Snuffles, it’s time to go home.”

***

“Why can’t I go?” Teddy pouted in the backseat as they made their way to Molly’s.

“It’s an adult party, Teddy. Even if I could take you, you’d be bored out of your mind.” Remus sighed as he turned down the Weasley’s street.

“I wanna thee Thnuffles.” By the sound of it, Teddy was now on the verge of tears. Remus knew he made a mistake when he told Teddy where he was going tonight. He probably would have heard from Harry or one of the other kids that night. “I wanna thee Pa— Pa’foot.” The floodgates opened.

“Teddy, you know that crying isn’t going to get your way on this. You’ll see Snuffles Monday when Sirius comes to watch you, just as he always does.” He looked in the review mirror to see tears rolling down his son’s cheeks and his bottom lip trembling. “You’re going to have plenty of fun with the Weasleys and Harry, I promise you that.” Remus did hate leaving Teddy whenever he went out to do something in the adult world and it was worse when he cried like this.

“But — but Padfoot…”

“I know, I know, love.” Remus wondered if he should worry about Teddy’s attachment to Sirius like this. At first he thought it was adorable but now he worried a little. Was it really normal? It must be, a kid spending so much time with someone like that. Remus felt guilt and sadness twisting in his chest. He couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he needed to find a new field of work to spend more time with Teddy but he was always going to miss something. The sadness mostly came from the fact that if Mary were around it’d be a lot easier. He didn’t have that option, though.

When he got Teddy to calm down, he brought him into the Weasley’s then headed over to the Potter’s for Sirius’ party. He spent the whole drive wondering if he was hurting his son somehow. How could he not? By the time he arrived at the party he was feeling very down and just wanted to go pick Ted up and go home.

“What’s the matter?” Lily furrowed her brow. She was in the entryway when Remus walked in.

“Nothing, don’t worry.” Remus shook his head. “Single dad problems.”

“Remus, you’re a brilliant father.”

“I’m just being self-loathing. It’s a normal setting for me.” Remus said. “I’ll put a smile on and won’t ruin Sirius’ birthday. I might leave earlier and pick up Teddy.”

“You won’t. He’s going to have plenty of fun with my son,” She shook her head.

Lily pulled him through a mostly familiar crowd who greeted him here and there with smiles. She got him to the kitchen the shoved a drink in his hand. Remus drank whatever it was she had concocted rather quickly then she gave him another, which he took his time with. As he was chatting with Lily, he spotted Sirius making his way towards him with someone shorter but who looked much like the dark haired man.

“Hey, Remus!” Sirius said happily. “I didn’t see you come in.”

“He needed a drink.” Lily said. “I’m going to go see what James is getting up to.”

“Remus, this is my brother, Regulus,” Sirius said as Lily started to walk away. “Reg, this is the bloke I’ve been working for.”

“Ah, I see,” Regulus spoke as if he knew something interesting about Remus.

Regulus’ hair was cut short, unlike Sirius’ long, black hair. They shared the same eyes and cheekbones. The young brother’s nose was pointier but his jaw was rounder in comparison to Sirius. He was just as good looking as his brother though. Clearly, the Blacks got their genetics all right even if they mucked everything else up — not Sirius and Regulus but the other ones.

“Nice to meet you, didn’t realize you were coming in from The States.”

“Yeah, my brother didn’t know either. It was a surprise for him.” Regulus explained with a grin. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s great. Teddy loves him. So much so, he was actually rather upset that he couldn’t come with me tonight. Teddy wanted to see Snuffles.”

“Ah, Snuffles is at my flat, so he’s not missing a thing, be sure to tell him that.” Sirius chuckled, bumping his shoulder into Remus. Sometimes, Sirius did things that Remus made him think that the other man was flirting with him. On top of that, every so often, Remus would say something nice to him and he’d blush like a school girl.

“He still misses you,” Remus said, trying not to grimace.

“I’m very easy to miss.”

“Not really,” Regulus joked. “He doesn’t drive you mad?”

“No, not yet, at least.” Remus chuckled. “Your brother takes great care of my son.”

“He’s a brilliant teacher. Taught me a lot, really — even though I love to give him shite.”

“How sweet,” Sirius said then laughed loudly.

“He is your brother after all.”

“Yes, I’m very lucky.” Sirius insisted a little begrudgingly. Remus was sure he meant it from his heart, though.

They chatted for a little while before Regulus went off to get some food. Sirius stuck close by to Remus for most of the night.

“I honestly don’t know what to do with myself.” Sirius disclosed in a low voice after Fabian had just talked his ear off about footy. He also made a suggestion to Remus that Gid was looking for him. Remus figured he’d easily fall into bed with the other man later to take his mind off things.

“I know a good amount of these people but haven’t seen most of them in years. The rest, Lily and James are making me be mates with.”

Remus did feel bad for Sirius. The man had only been back for a few months. He was sure that it must be overwhelming, even if James and Lily only meant the best. Maybe they should have let Sirius pick what to do for his party. Remus was sure that he would have been much happier with the Potters, Dorcas, Marlene, and maybe the Tonks with still the surprise of Regulus. He probably would have liked having the sprogs and Remus around too. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks for letting me hanging around you.”

“No worries, I really don’t mind.”

Remus didn’t mind at all. He liked Sirius for a multitude of reasons. Sirius was smart, funny, and great with Teddy. If the situation was any different (Remus wasn’t a single dad and Remus hadn’t hired him to watch Teddy), then he might even fancy him. That wasn’t even an option, so being a mate was perfectly fine. It was bad enough that Teddy was this attached and they weren’t even dating. He could never do that to his son.

***

Even though he was slightly hungover, Sirius was happy that Regulus offered to help him go through some of the things at their family home. Well, only happy because he got to spend time with his brother. Reg was less help than Sirius because he would get distracted and make up long stories about where certain things came from (“that vase has to be from Rome. Look at it. I bet Mother got Father to get it for her that time they went to Italy on holiday”).

He also kept bringing up Remus, “You should bring Remus here and shag him on their bed. Homophobic arseholes.”

“Regulus!”

“I’m just saying, it’d be nice payback.”

“I don’t think I’m interested in doing that.” Sirius said as he opened a drawer in his father’s desk. They were in his study. “Remus wouldn’t want to shag me anyway.” Sirius said. The other man had gone home with Gideon again last night.

“I don’t know, he seems to like you well enough.”

“I can’t do it with him.” Sirius pulled out a bunch of papers that looked like they had to do with the business. He set them on top of the desk to look at later. “There’s too much to worry about.”

“I mean, you’re practically married. You take care of the kid and his flat. You cook for him. You welcome him home at night. You spend time together outside of your hours there. I don’t know, seems perfect.”

“Working and being a couple are two completely different things.” Sirius said with a shake of his head. He looked at the drawer and thought it was odd. It looked as if it should be a hell of a lot deeper than it was. “Weird,” He tapped his knuckles on the bottom of the drawer and it sounded hollow.

“What?”

“Empty bottom,” Sirius grabbed the snake letter opener on the desk and slipped it between the seam of the drawer and the bottom. He pried the bottom up. “Ah huh!”

“What’s in there?” Reg came closer.

“Some type of diary.” Sirius picked up the black leather bound book. He opened it to find columns on columns filled in with some type of code, all of which was in his mother’s scrawl. DE.LM.128P was one he saw a few times. “It has to do with The Business.”

“What though?”

“I don’t know.” Sirius shook his head, handing it over to Regulus. It was probably useless now.

“Hmm, interesting.”

“Whatever it is, I don’t want it.” Sirius shook his head.

“Can I have it? Maybe I can figure out the code.”

“Okay, math boy, you do that.” Sirius thought it would be better if they scorched the thing. Really, it’d be better if they burnt down Grimmauld in general.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know very little about how law enforcement and investigations work. So, just enjoy it and if it’s wrong and it bothers you, sorry.

The months passed by quickly. Remus spent the Christmastime with his mum, taking some time off work to be with his family. Remus and Teddy spent New Year’s Eve at the Potters, where Sirius had also been. January seemed to move slowly but, soon enough it was March. Remus’s routines were firmly in place and Sirius was doing an amazing job with Teddy. There was also the added bonus that Teddy got to love Snuffles and Remus didn’t need to worry about having to get a dog for the time being. Maybe Sirius could pick Teddy up from school with Snuffles or something after September get him his dog fix.

There was only one issue with Sirius Black: Remus was sure that the man fancied him. He would blush when Remus was nice to him. Sometimes his touches lingered or his gaze was a bit more than friendly. Remus didn’t hate it because there was another issue: Remus was sure that he fancied Sirius Black. This really was the opposite of what he wanted and expected after hiring Sirius. He thought it’d be nice to have the connection between James and Lily but Sirius was beginning to feel like family. Remus was starting to wonder if he could have a life without Sirius in his life all the time.

Remus absolutely hated that he had any sort of feelings other than friendly for Sirius. He couldn’t put himself and Teddy in a position to be hurt. It was best for everyone if he just went on acting as if there were no feelings involved. It was easy enough to do. Remus had fancied someone at work the other year. It was the first time he had a crush after Mary passed away. He was easy enough to set aside. Remus had some idea that pushing aside these feelings for Sirius were not going to be as easy as his last crush.

“Do you ever wonder, what pigeons think?” Em, his partner, asked as she looked out the window near their desks. They had just settled in for the day, which was looking mostly like paperwork to wrap things up. He hated the days that were mostly pouring over paperwork.

“Why would I think about what pigeons think about?” Remus shook his head as his phone rang. He picked it up and before even saying a greeting the gruff voice of his direct superior, Alastor Moody, spoke.

“The Flying Squad needs you to go out to Budleigh, Lupin.”

“There was a robbery there? Someone died too?” Remus furrowed his brow. He heard of a robbery at Gringotts, which was a stone's throw from Scotland Yard and not close to Budleigh at all.

“No, it’s more complicated than that. Get going, you’re expected.” Moody said before giving him the address they were heading to.

“What’s going on?” Em raised an eyebrow.

“Murder in Budleigh. Something to do with a robbery, must be. I don’t know.”

“Always so bloody cryptic,” Em huffed then stood up. “Come on then, no time to waste.”

Soon enough they were off towards Budleigh with Em driving their car. She was still going on about pigeons, at least for the first few minutes of the drive. Then she changed it to a recent favorite subject, “How’s Sirius Black?” She raised a questioning eyebrow.

“He’s fine.” Remus said.

Em had been going on about him since he had come by the other week to drop off dinner for them both with Teddy in tow. They were in the middle of a big case and Remus’ shift was going extra long. Sirius was concerned about them not eating so he came by with stew and bread for Em and him. Em thought he was adorable and demanded that Remus date him now or she was going to find someone to set him up with.

“Have you snogged him yet?”

“Have you learned how to mind your own business yet, Vance?” Remus retorted, shaking his head as he sent a text to let Sirius know his day might go late but he’d keep him posted.

“You two would be really cute together.” She said for probably the tenth time.

“If we continue to talk about this, I’ll murder you. I know how to make it look like an accident. Seen plenty of murders, you know?”

“Bugger off, Lupin. You know that I’m right!”

“You’re not right, it’s complicated and weird and totally unethical. He works for me.” Remus shook his head.

“You could fire him. He’s got his own money, right? You said he’s well off and just looking for something to occupy him.”

“I’m not firing him so I can shag him. There’s too much other shite I have to worry about, Em, you know that.”

“You haven’t dated since Mary.”

“Yes and that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s too complicated.”

“What if it’s not complicated for Sirius? What if it works out well?” She spoke eagerly.

“Stop talking about it.”

Em smirked but said nothing else about the topic. She instead talked about how she and her boyfriend were thinking about taking a holiday soon. Remus thought a holiday might be nice soon with Teddy. His son hadn’t been out of the country yet, it might be something nice to do.

They pulled up to the address they had been given. There were already a few vehicles out front. Remus and Em went into the unassuming house and Remus was wondering what they would find there.

“Lupin, Vance, I’m Kingsley Shacklebolt from Project Team.” A very large black man said as Remus and Em entered the living room.

“Project Team?” Remus raised an eyebrow. Project Team worked with organized crime. Moody said they were wanted by Flying Squad.

“Yes,” Shacklebolt nodded. “It’s connected to both organized crime and robberies.”

“Okay then, what’s going on?” Em asked, arms folded, looking over Kingsley’s shoulder.

Kingsley stepped aside to reveal an older man in an armchair. He was clearly dead. His throat looked like it had been slit, blood drenching the front of his blue and white pjs. His skin was nearly grey. His mouth was hanging opened and it looked as if there were silver coins in his mouth. “Do we know anything?” Remus moved closer.

“Horace Slughorn, 65. He just moved in the other week according to the neighbors. There was some type of disturbance a few hours ago and the people next door heard and called it in but didn’t see anything but a nondescript car drive off a few minutes before we got here. Slughorn is a chemist, used to work for some big pharma company tied to the Riddle Family.”

Remus nodded, his stomach turned a little as he looked down at the man’s forearm. On it was a crude bloody carving of a snake, a mark of Death Eaters — the group that used to work under Walburga and Orion Black. The Riddles were connected to The Blacks. He wasn’t sure what to do with that information. Sirius wasn’t involved in the company. He was a boy the last he saw his parents. It wasn’t as if he was involved in this in any sort of way.

“What’d he do to piss ‘em off?” Em questioned.

“We don’t really know. We’re all sort of going in on this one. Someone could have killed him and connected it to the Death Eaters — Riddle’s people.”

“Death Eaters? What kind of daft name is that for a crime organization?” Em scoffed, looking at Slughorn closely.

Remus swallowed thickly, “This seems too much like their old statements for it not to be them.” He said.

“Either way, Lupin, we’re all on it.”

“Right, then,” Remus nodded. “We should coordinate so we’re not stepping on each other’s toes. I’m assuming that forensics is doing their thing now?”

“Yes,” Shacklebolt confirmed.

“What’s this have to do with a robbery?”

“Right, well, The Death Eaters, they robbed Gringotts. Er, rob is a harsh word because they didn’t take any money, like you’d think. They opened up a bunch of security deposit boxes but only took a locket and a ring. Stuff used to belong to Walburga and Orion Black.”

Remus’ ears started to ring at the sound of Sirius’ parents' names. It was the official notice that the Blacks were involved. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about this all with Sirius. Remus wasn’t sure if he should ask Sirius about it. He probably shouldn’t even say a word about the investigation. Legally, he really couldn’t, only in vague terms. Should he worry about Teddy or Sirius or Regulus, even if the man was now across the ocean? Was his mother actually right to fret about Sirius watching Teddy?

Whatever was going to happen, he hoped his team cleared up this whole thing quickly.

***

“When’s Da coming home?” Teddy asked as he got comfortable under his duvet.

“Not sure, Ted, but I’ll be here until he’s home, okay?” Sirus assured the boy.

Teddy nodded as Sirius picked up the book the boy picked out for his bedtime story. Normally, Sirius loved reading books to Teddy before bed. Tonight though, his mind was elsewhere. All he wanted to do was talk to Remus and see if he knew anything about what was happening. He also needed to call Reggie and maybe James and Lily. Sirius needed someone to talk him off a ledge, really.

When Teddy had gone down to take a nap earlier in the afternoon, Sirius checked his phone. He was on twitter when he saw _Riddle’s Death Eaters Are Back: Gringotts Robbed_. The article said that the group that broke in were specifically looking for something in the safety deposit boxes. They left with a ring and a locket belonging to his parents. Sirius had no idea why those things were important to the group but he was sure that they meant something significant. They wouldn’t have done it if they were worthless.

“Goodnight, mini,” Sirius said quietly when he closed the book to see Teddy had drifted off to sleep. Sirius was jealous of the boy because he knew that sleep was not going to come that easily for him tonight.

After turning on Teddy’s moon nightlight and shutting off his other lights, Sirius shut the door and went out into the living room. He turned on the news and opened his laptop in the hopes of finding out something that he didn’t know yet. There was nothing there, of course. It was all the same stuff, they hadn’t even released the name of a man who was dead in connection to the events.

He texted Reg because he wasn’t sure what else to do.

 **RB** : Nothing new?

 **SB:** Nope.

 **RB:** Shite. I keep looking at  
this diary.

Sirius grimaced. He forgot about the ledger they had discovered at Grimmauld. It looked like a random bunch of letters and numbers, but it surely was some sort of code. He didn’t tell anyone about it and Regulus had taken it home. Now he was wondering if he had done the right thing.

 **SB** : Anything?

 **RB** : Still confused

The door to the flat unlocked and then the door opened and closed.

 **SB** : Remus is home

 **RB** : ttyl… let me know if he  
says anything.

 **SB** : Will do

Sirius listened as Remus took off his shoes and coat before he came into the living room. Remus looked rather stricken. Clearly, he knew all about what was going on with Riddle and the Death Eaters. “All right?”

“Ah, yeah, yeah, all right.” Remus waved a hand and sat down. “Teddy asleep?”

“Out cold,” Sirius confirmed. “How — ah… god, I’m not going to pretend I don’t know what’s happening because that’s impossible.”

Remus furrowed his brow then asked, “Are the safety deposit boxes in your name?”

“No, those weren’t in the will for me. I have a property and a bank account. Both of which I’m in the process of getting rid of.” Sirius informed him. “Do they want to talk to me?”

“I don’t think so. Not that I know of at least. You don’t have ownership of the boxes and unless if you know the bloke they may have killed then it’s doubtful. Have you talked to anyone in your family outside of the Tonks and Reggie lately?”

Sirius shook his head. He felt like he should bring up the diary or ledger or whatever that was he had found but Regulus had it. It was all the way in Boston now. What good was that going to do? He also didn’t want Remus thinking badly of him for possibly hiding something.

“I figured that.”

“Remus, if you don’t want me to look after Teddy any longer, I completely understand.” Sirius prayed it wouldn’t come to that but he understood if it did. His family had ruined many things in his life and he was sure this wouldn’t be the last.

“That’s mad, I’m not going to ask you to stop watching Teddy over this. You haven’t seen from or heard from them in ages. You don’t even have anything that they want. The business was given to your cousin Bellatrix, right? That’s where everything is.” Remus concluded. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the best feeling to see this all happening but I still trust you, Sirius. If you don’t want to care for Teddy any longer, I completely understand.”

“No, I do. I don’t want to stop helping out. I’m just — this is all so strange. It’s why I left to begin with.”

“Well, let’s not let them run you off now, Sirius.” Remus put his hand on his knee and gave it a squeeze. “Teddy loves you to pieces, you’re not really allowed to go anywhere, anyway.”

“Your mum is really going to be nervous about me watching Teddy now.” Sirius scrubbed a hand over his face. He had yet to meet Hope Lupin, but Teddy’s party was fast approaching. It was going to happen there. He just hoped she wouldn’t be too cross with him.

“Don’t worry about my mam.” Remus shook his head, leaning back. The hand that was still on Sirius’ knee slid up to his thigh. It only stayed there for a brief moment before Remus moved it away. “Are you doing okay?”

Sirius shrugged, “It’s stressful but, it’s not the end of the world.”

“Why don’t you say here tonight?” Remus suggested. “It’s late as it is and you’re upset. We could watch something on telly if you wanted?”

Sirius bit his lip as he thought. It sounded like a good idea to stay the night but then he’d be thinking about crawling into Remus’ bed. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to make an arse out of himself by doing that even in a friendly platonic way at the moment. “No, I need to get home. Erm, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, right?”

“Yeah, ah, right, see you then,” Remus nodded.

Why did his life have to be like this? Why couldn’t his family and everyone intertwined in it just fuck off for once?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the love on this fic, it makes me so happy because this is NOT WHAT I WAS PLANNING TO WRITE! It had a total life of its own but I love it so much right now.

The Thursday before Teddy’s birthday seemed like an average one even if Sirius was beginning to feel decidedly not normal. All he could think of lately was Riddle and his parents. But it was a typical grey end of March day and Teddy was excited to go to the library then get something sweet to eat.

“The lie-berry,” Teddy declared as they turned down the street towards one of his favorite spots in the whole city of London.

“Yes, the library,” Sirius chuckled as he saw the building up ahead. “I think you’d live here if you were able to.”

The last few weeks had been rather trying. The Death Eaters were suddenly back in the news, as was The Black family name and business. Sirius’ name was included but most journalists and people in the comments sections seemed to believe that he was free from the family. He had been gone so long and Regulus was an emancipated minor. Remus told Sirius not to worry about it because there was nothing to worry about. If anything was grounding, it was the other man’s faith in him.

Remus didn’t know about the diary or all the probably stolen things at Grimmauld. Sirius wanted to tell him but he was afraid that if he told Remus, then he’d lose the man and the stability of his job and the sweet routine he had with the Lupins. He would lose the comfort of being in Remus’ presence nearly early single day. He wasn’t sure how he would deal with that. He liked being with Remus far too much.

“Can we find a book about firefighters?”

“Sure, mini,” Sirius nodded.

Teddy had recently become interested in becoming a fireman. Sirius wasn’t sure what the idea came from because the other week he wanted to be a teacher, just like Sirius he had said. Sirius knew this was normal childhood behavior but he always wondered where they got their inspiration from sometimes. Sirius couldn’t remember them watching or reading anything with firefighters over the last week.

“Padfoot,” Teddy spoke as the climbed the steps of the library. He sounded very seriously all of a sudden.

“What is it, Teddy?”

“Are you and Da getting married?”

Sirius felt himself flush a deep red. This was not something he expected the boy to ask. He thought it would be further from his mind than firefighters. “Um, no, Teddy. Your da and I are just good friends.”

“Oh,” Teddy pouted.

“Can I ask, why, Teddy?”

“‘Omine said that her daddies are married. I know you’re not my dad but — but…”

Sirus frowned, not exactly sure what to say. He couldn’t level with the kid that he was in love with his father but they had a working relationship and their friendship was the best they were going to get for now. He couldn’t tell Teddy that he would love to be a part of their family but it just wasn’t realistic for many reasons.

“Teddy, love, your da and I are friends. I take care of you when your da is at work like Auntie Lily did before,” Sirius knelt down next to him.

“Who’s going to be my other da or my mum?”

Sirius felt as if his heart was breaking. He did not want to tell Remus about this conversation because he knew the man struggled with being a single dad from time to time. Telling Remus that Teddy wanted another parent in his life was not going to make Remus feel great. “I don’t know, Teddy. You don’t need another da or mum. I think you have so many people who love and care about you. I do, Auntie Lily, Uncle James, Molly, Arthur, Marlene, Dorcas, Andi, Nymphadora — I could go on all day about all the people in your life who love you so very much.”

“But — but aren’t das ‘posed to have thomeone?”

“No, no, they don’t need to have someone like that. There doesn’t need to be another dad or a mum.” Sirius said, hoping he was saying the right things. There was never a course in school to teach him how to handle problems like this with kids. “Your dad is loved too, by all those people who love you. Don’t worry, okay?”

Teddy nodded then hugged Sirius.

“It’s going to be just fine.” Sirius hugged Teddy tight and rubbed his back. The poor kid.

Teddy stepped back and rubbed his eyes. “I think I want to find books now.”

“Okay, we can go find some books,” Sirius smiled and stood up. He took Teddy’s hand and they walked into the library.

The two went straight for the children’s section and Sirius let Teddy look around. As he hovered close by he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as if someone was watching him. He glanced behind him and saw nothing but it didn’t stop his stomach from turning. Something was wrong.

That feeling was confirmed a few moments later when he heard a voice beside him. One he thought he had long forgotten. “Sirius, Sirius Black. My old friend.”

Standing in front of him was Peter Pettigrew. He had aged terribly. He was already balding and looked closer to his late forties than early thirties. His clothes were nice though. Sirius noticed he was missing two fingers on his left hand. He probably had to pay the price for one thing or another.

“Peter,” Sirius all but croaked and Teddy turned around to see who Sirius was speaking to. The boy immediately came over with two books in his hands and clung on to his leg. Sirius learned that Teddy had a tendency to be shy around new people. It was something he didn’t really see when he meant the boy.

“Who’s this?”

“None of your business,” Sirius said quickly. Peter was on the list of people that he was sure Remus didn’t want meeting his son. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for a book to read. I thought I saw you and I was right.”

“Didn’t know you could read,” Sirius put his hand on Teddy’s head.

“Read any good books lately?”

“No, none you’d be interested in. I’m sure the kid’s reading level is higher than yours.” Sirus bit out.

“I thought you’d happy to see me, Padfoot. What’s wrong?”

“Don’t use my nickname, you don’t get to do that anymore.”

“You’re the one who ran off overseas.”

Sirius looked around the library. This couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? He hadn’t heard from or seen Peter in ages and neither did any of his friends from Hogwarts. This on top of the stirrings of his family’s old crime organization was enough to send anyone into paranoia. “I went to get away. You stayed and made friendly with some people who aren’t exactly nice. Peter, we’re going to check our books out and go. Is there something I can do for you?”

Peter seemed to study him in a calculating way. He always looked dumber than he was. James, Frank, and Sirius never gave him enough credit, really. Sirius knew his parents wouldn’t take him on if he was a complete moron.

“No, nothing at the moment. I’ll see you round, Sirius.”

Sirius didn’t say anything, he just picked up Teddy and carried him to the checkout desk.

“Who was that man, Padfoot?”

“No one, Teddy,” Sirius said, setting him down as he got to the desk.

“You didn’t like him.”

“No, I didn’t. Don’t worry about it, though, Teddy. It’s okay.” Sirus assured the boy but he didn’t trust his own words. He didn’t know if Peter being sent to him was a threat or if it was just an unhappy coincidence. It could have been either. Sirius wished he could tell if it was just the unhappy coincidence.

Needless to say, Sirius took Teddy to eat in a place they never would go usually. Then they walked a bit before taking a taxi to a few streets over of the Lupin’s flat. He spent the whole afternoon looking over his shoulder, wondering if he was being followed.

***

Remus got back to the flat at his usual time. The investigation into Slughorn’s death was completely stalled. Project Team and Flying Squad hadn’t been able to arrest anyone for the robbery at Gringotts either. It was all frustrating because they knew who was involved but couldn’t do a thing about it. He could tell the whole thing was bothering Sirius as well because of the threads that tied him to the Death Eaters and Riddle. God, they stole from his parent’s boxes.

There had been a few lengthy discussions with Lily, James, and his mother about letting Sirius continue watching Teddy. He didn’t want to let him go and deal with going out of his way to bring Teddy to his mam’s. He didn’t want Sirius out of his life at all but the situation was so strange and foreign. Lily and James encouraged him not to give up on Sirius because it would hurt them all. His mam was skeptical about Sirius and told him he might want to let him go. She even said she’d come out to his flat to take care of Teddy.

Of course, in the end he didn’t let go of Sirius. He needed him around. Not only did he need him for Teddy, but for himself. Being able to have someone to go home to every night was fantastic, even if Sirius left not long after he walked through the door. It was still nice to have an adult to greet him and care for him. Well, most nights it was. Tonight, the look in Sirius’ eyes scared him a bit.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, looking over at Teddy and Snuffles curled up in the dog bed. Teddy was sleepily flipping through a book.

“Why— why did you ask that?” Sirius frowned.

“It’s all over your face.” Remus insisted.

The dark haired man looked over at Teddy then stood up from the sofa. “Come on, I’ll heat your dinner.”

Remus nodded. He went over to say hello to Teddy before he went into the kitchen, wondering what was happening. “Is Teddy not feeling well?”

“No, it’s not that. I mean, he was upset earlier because he — he thinks you need to get married to someone.” Sirus pulled a casserole dish out of the refrigerator.

Remus frowned, “What?”

“I thought I should tell you that because he might ask you later. It’s okay. I told him how loved he is by everyone and how you are too. He didn’t dwell on it for too long.”

That wasn’t what Remus thought Sirius was going to tell him. He was almost relieved even if it hurt a bit. Remus always hoped that Teddy didn’t see the difference between himself and kids with two parents in their lives.

Remus watched Sirius get out a dish. There was a tight line of tension in his shoulders when he turned to look at him again with concern all over his face. “What?”

“That’s not the problem, really.”

“Of course it’s not,” Remus shook his head. “What’s going on, Sirus?”

“I saw — we went to the library earlier. That’s where he had that question and all. But at the library I ran into Peter Pettigrew.”

Remus’ eyes went as wide as saucers. Pettigrew was a name Remus knew from not only Lily and James, but also the Met. Pettigrew was the right hand of Riddle nowadays. He was an old mate of his best friends who wanted money over friendship. “What did he say?”

“Nothing much. He said that he was there checking out a book. He asked me if I’ve read — OH GOD. Remus, don’t be mad.”

“What?” Remus stood up, moving closer to Sirius. “Sirus what’s wrong?”

The other man closed his eyes tight, “It’s the book thing. I just… Reg and I were cleaning out Grimmauld when he was here back in November. I mean, I don’t even know what to do with all that shite because who knows if they legitimately got it. But Reg and I found this ledger thing. It was all letters and numbers that looked like some sort of code. I didn’t want it and Regulus took it to see if he could figure it out. What if that’s what Peter meant when he asked if I read anything interesting lately?”

“Your bother has the book? Can he scan it and send the scans to me?” Remus asked quickly. Project Team needed to look at the code, maybe they could know what it meant. Regulus and Sirius should have turned it in right away but it was too late now.

Sirius nodded and took out his phone out of his pocket. “I can do that. Yeah. He will. I’m sorry I didn’t even think it was important. They could have waltzed into Grimmauld whenever they wanted to get it. I didn’t think it would be an issue.”

“They’ve been looking for something, I think.” Remus said. “I mean, with Slughorn, Gringotts, and —” Remus stopped himself because he couldn’t tell Sirius everything. He couldn’t tell him about the Crouch’s flat begin completely turned over and them finding Crouch Sr. with the same coins in his mouth and snake on his forearm. That was just one in many break-ins and deaths that could be connected to Riddle and his Death Eaters as of late.

“What?”

“Nothing — I can’t tell you, Sirius, I’m sorry.”

“I understand.” He unlocked his phone and went to his contacts. “I’m an idiot for not telling you.”

“A bit, yeah.” Remus was annoyed but he decided that he needed to not get so upset over it. There were more important things to deal with at this moment.

Sirius clicked his brother’s name then held the phone up to his ear, “Hey… yeah… look, I need you to scan that diary we found and send the images over to Remus. I’ll send you his email…no, I don’t know, Reg…Maybe… I saw Pettigrew today, asked me if I’ve read anything good… yeah, I know…”

“Da, I’m tired,” Teddy’s little voice made Remus jump.

Remus turned to his son and smiled. He wondered how safe Teddy was now. These people had seen him with Sirus now. They might know where he lived or what his and Sirius’ routines were. He needed to tell Sirius ways to avoid being followed. Remus needed to give him some tools, even for Sirius himself. “All right, love, I’ll read you a book.”

“Night, Padfoot,” Teddy went over and hugged Sirius' legs.

Sirius held his phone aside and knelt down, “Good night, Teddy. I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll get all ready for your party.”

“Okay,” Teddy nodded as Sirius hugged him.

Once Teddy detached himself, Sirius went back to talking to his brother and Remus went to go tuck Teddy into bed. Teddy gave Remus a book on firefighters they must have picked up at the library — earlier when he had seen Pettigrew.

“Da, is Thirius okay?”

“Yeah, why?” Remus held the book close to his chest.

“He seemed thad.”

“He’s okay, love.” Remus brushed his fringe aside.

By the time he finished reading the book, Teddy was dozing off. He looked at his son for a moment wondering what he was thinking about Pettigrew and everything else that was happening around him. He obviously knew something was going wrong. Remus wanted to fix everything for Sirius so it could all just go back to how it was before Riddle’s crew made an appearance again.

Back out in the living room, he found Sirius with Remus’ laptop open in front of him on the coffee table but not logged in. He was also off the phone and chewing his lip, staring at the screen. “Regulus is sending them now.”

“Okay,” Remus sat next to him.

“God, I’m so sorry,” Sirius pressed his hands to his face and leaned forward. “I — I feel like this is all going to blow up in my face somehow.”

“Sirius, it’s okay, we’ll get these and — and maybe Shacklebolt can sort it,” Remus put his hand on Sirius back. “None of this is your fault. Not turning over the ledger wasn’t the best move but I understand why you wouldn’t.”

“I don’t,” Sirius sounded like he was cry but his hands were shielding his eyes. “I should go home.” He rubbed his face then stood up. His eyes were wet.

“You can stay, if you need to.”

“No, really, I shouldn’t.”

Remus stood up, “Why?”

“Why? Well, I could be dragging you into this family shite. I could have just fucked up with the diary. I could be putting you and Teddy in danger. I could stay and maybe make a complete fool out of myself because I fancy you.” Sirius said then looked a little surprised, as if he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

“You fancy me?” Remus knew he sounded like an idiot but he didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s daft. I don’t think I should watch Teddy for much longer because I can’t shake how I feel about you and… this whole fucking Peter thing. It might be for the best if I just—”

Remus leaned forward and pressed his lips to Sirius’. His fingers went up into Sirius’ hair and he pulled the other man closer against his body with an arm around his waist. It was a night to make daft moves and mistakes it seemed. Just as Remus was about to pull Sirius down on to the sofa, he heard Teddy’s door open. He stepped back from Sirius, who looked completely baffled.

“Sorry,” Sirius spoke quickly before Teddy came down the hall. “I’ll go. Check your email for what he sent. I— I’m sorry.”

Remus wasn’t sure what the other man had to be sorry about. Remus was the one who had kissed him. “No, stay, we’ll talk after—”

“Da, I can’t thleep.” Teddy tugged on his trouser leg.

“I can’t, I need to go. Good night, Teddy. Be a good kiddo, right?”

Teddy nodded.

“Teddy, go pick out another book and I’ll be right in,” Remus instructed his son.

Teddy agreed before detaching himself from Remus. Sirius was putting on his jacket then picking up the bag he always brought with him. He was looking frazzled and upset.

“I’m sorry, Sirius. I shouldn’t have kissed you. That was — I don’t want to say stupid because it’s not stupid. Kissing you is not stupid.” Remus said as they began to walk towards the door. “It was poor timing and I just, reacted, I guess? I don’t normally just react.”

“It’s okay, Remus.” Sirius said, keeping his eyes down. “I shouldn’t have said that to you. I do feel that way towards you but it’s just—”

“Too complicated.” Remus finished for him.

“Yeah, too bloody complicated.” Sirius ran a hand through his hair. “It’s best if we forget about it for now, right? I’ll see what I can do for finding a good person to watch Teddy.”

Remus wanted to protest that but he knew he wasn’t going to get very far now. Teddy needed Remus. Remus needed to get him to bed then send over whatever Regulus sent along to Kingsley. This, whatever this was, between Sirius and Remus was not going to be solved now. Even if Remus very much wanted Sirius to stay with him all night, he didn’t know if he could be in a relationship with Sirius.


	7. Chapter 7

Remus was watched Sirius as he entertained the gaggle of children in the living room by showing them some easy magic tricks at Teddy’s party. He didn’t know how someone could entertain so many kids all at once.

It had been one very long and agonizing day and a half for many reasons. The first reason, was that Project Team was now in possession of the diary/ledger that Regulus had scanned for them. Shacklebolt said there was nothing he could tell Remus about it yet, so Remus had no idea if it was helpful. He had to hope against all hope that it was going to bring some type of justice to Riddle and the Death Eaters. He hoped it would return everything back to normal.

There was also the fact that Remus kept stressing about Pettigrew or some Death Eaters following Teddy and Sirius around. Lily and James told him that Peter was woo’ed by the group because he was short on money when they were in their last year at Hogwarts. Sirius and James told him not to believe anything he was being told by the group but they weren’t surprised when he drifted away and James heard he was working for the Blacks. After everything they had put Sirius through, that should have been enough for their friend not to make the mistake.

Oh, and the obvious and most pressing issue because it was the one closest to his face at the moment: his ever growing attraction to Sirius and the fact they had snogged the other night. Sirius had told him that he fancied him and Remus just reacted. Remus wished everything was simple. He would never wish to not have Teddy, not for a moment but he wished maybe the boy was older so it wouldn’t be so hard. He wished Sirius’ family wasn’t so horrible. He wished Sirius wasn’t a caretaker for his child.

“Everything okay, Moony?” Lily asked him, pulling him from his thoughts.

“I’m fine.” Remus shrugged a shoulder.

“I think you’re lying. Let's chat, come on,” She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the back garden.

Clouds were gathering in the sky and it looked as if the heavens were about to open up any time now. Remus knew that there was rain expected at any time today. He always hoped that Teddy would have a nice April day for his birthday. Maybe they should have gone with the weekend after his birthday this year instead of the weekend before.

“What happened?” She asked. “Is it the Peter thing? Sirius told us.”

“No, well, kind of but not really. It’s not exactly helping the situation. I haven’t heard a thing from anyone about the investigation either.” Remus huffed. “I kissed Sirius.”

“Remus!” She shouted but was grinning from ear to ear. Remus wasn’t expecting her to be so thrilled about it. “That’s amazing.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

“Sure,” She nodded. “I think he fancies you. I’m pretty sure he gets jealous when you go off with Gid.”

“Well, I know he fancies me because he told me last night. He sort of word vomited that then I kissed him because — because I don’t know.”

“Because you fancy him too.”

“Lily, it’s going to be so complicated.”

“If it’s because you don’t know who is going to watch Teddy, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Sirius loves the kid. Don’t pay him if that’s going to be too strange for you but don’t worry about child care.”

“What about his family?”

Lily shook her head, “I know this whole thing with Riddle and his Death Eaters is stressful but I’m sure Sirius has nothing to do with it.”

Remus couldn’t tell her about the ledger that Regulus had taken back to The States with him. If Pettigrew was making a reference to that book, it did involve Sirius. It wasn’t that Sirius was involved, he just was a victim of circumstance.

“Do you fancy him, Moony? Do you think, if he wasn’t here tomorrow that you’d be hurt and upset that you didn’t talk about your feelings with one another?”

There was no denying that he would feel that way. He cared about Sirius, even if the idea of being in a relationship was terrifying. “Of course I fancy him. I haven’t been in a relationship since Mary. Being in one is, I don’t know, horrifying, I guess.” Remus shook his head. “The idea of Sirius not being in my life is horrifying too,” Remus concludes.

“Relationships aren’t easy, but I think that Sirius is worth it for you.”

Remus hoped that she was right but didn’t say more as they felt the first raindrop fall. They went back into Lily and James’ home. There, they found his mother talking to Sirius looking very stern in the kitchen. “Mam, leave him be, will you?”

She looked at him with wide eyes. It was a very similar look to Teddy when he got caught doing things he shouldn’t be doing. “I was not.” She shook her head. “Just having a friendly chat before I help Lily clean this mess up.”

Sirius was chewing at his bottom lip, as he did when he was stressed out, Remus had come to find. “It’s fine Remus, she’s rightfully worried. I told her we talked about it not lasting much longer.”

“Which is probably the smart thing. It’s not that I don’t like Sirius, I told him that. He’s wonderful with Teddy. He understands what I’m trying to say, Remus.”

“I never suggested it not last long. I don’t want that.” Remus shook his head, going back to what Sirius had said.

“With everything happening—”

“Remus, you’re the only person who’s being—”

He held up his hand to both his mother and Sirius, “I don’t think we should talk about this right now. It’s Teddy’s birthday and we’re supposed to having a good time. So, let’s do that.” Remus suggested. It was not the time for them to have this conversation or any conversation like it. “We need to open gifts and have cake, so let’s do that.”

“Right, sorry,” His mam said with a frown. “I’ll go gather the kids. Sirius, would you like to help?”

They went on and gave Teddy a wonderful day and soon enough the party was nearly over and everyone was leaving. His mother had gone home right after cake and presents. Sirius was no longer at risk of getting yelled at or guilted or anything of the like.

“Damn, it’s pouring out,” Sirius looked at the window of the Potter’s kitchen.

Teddy was staying over the Potter’s with a few other kids for a sleepover. It hadn’t been planned but the Potter’s just rolled with it because they always did. Remus didn’t want to object to Teddy staying there either because he looked so excited.

“I’ll give you a ride home. You have Snuffles, he’ll smell like a wet dog if you bring him out in this and wait for the bus.” Remus said. They needed to have a conversation before this got out of hand. There was a lot to talk about and they usually had to worry about Teddy overhearing them if they did chat. Plus, Remus needed to try to fix things before Sirius decided to up and leave back to The States with his brother.

Sirius scratched behind his ear, “I — my flat is out of your way. You’d have to drive past your own to get to it.”

“Fine, I’ll drive you to mine and the walk to The Tube is quicker than the walk to the bus stop here.” Remus said, looking around. They were alone in the kitchen so Remus continued on. “I think we need to talk, Sirius, and now might be the best time.”

The other man furrowed his brow, “Okay, fine.”

“Good. You can help me bring all of Teddy’s gifts inside too,” Remus joked, attempting to lighten the mood that had been heavy between them for some time now, even before the had snogged.

“I can do that, no problem.”

“Maybe you’ll have tea then too, if you’re going to help me lug all his gifts up to the flat that is.”

Sirius nodded, “Yeah, I can do that.”

Remus felt triumphant. He was at least going to have a chance to talk to Sirius, something he should have done a long time ago instead of dancing around his own feelings and pretending not to see Sirius’. Plus, no one was going to interrupt this time.

***

“Fucking hell, mate, how does one kid get so many gifts,” Sirius said, huffing breaths as he put down the arm full of brightly colored bags that he had on Teddy’s bed.

“That’s how it is when you have a lot of friends and family,” Remus shrugged.

“How do you feel after that whole Teddy wants two dads thing? I know you didn’t get much time to process before I told you about Pettigrew,” Sirius ran a hand through his now damp hair. He was happy that Remus offered him and Snuffles a ride to his flat because it was coming down out there.

“It’s something I’ve thought about a lot. Want that tea?”

“Have anything stronger?” Sirius asked, following Remus out towards the living room.

“Scotch?”

“Yes, please.”

“Ha, good. Um, but, yeah, I think about how he doesn’t have two parents a lot. It’s not as if it was a choice of anyone either. Mary just passed away in childbirth,” Remus said then cleared his throat as they passed Snuffles, who was in his dog bed. “I’ve stayed away from dating at first because I missed her too much but lately it’s because I don’t want to hurt Teddy. I don’t want to be hurt either.”

Sirius nodded, leaning on the counter of the kitchen as Remus reached into the top shelf where he kept his liquor. His jumper rode up a tiny bit to reveal a strip of pale skin. “I can understand. I don’t do great at relationships because of my lovely family, but I want to do it with you. It must be terrible that I come along and fancy you with all my fucking baggage.”

Remus shook his head as he grabbed two glasses now the bottle of scotch was on the counter. “Look, it doesn’t help with everything that’s happening but it’s not exactly why I don’t want to do this. I can’t have someone get attached to Teddy then leave. If we got together then broke up, it’d be the worst thing I could do to Teddy. He loves you.”

“I know and I love him. He’s an amazing kid. I hope we wouldn’t burn each other so bad that I couldn’t see him or be around you. I don’t cheat and I’m not a bad person and neither are you. I don’t know if you cheat either. I hope not.”

“I don’t.” Remus sighed while he poured three fingers of scotch in each glass. “Things sometime happen that we can’t control.”

“I know that, Moony. Look at all the shite that’s happening now. I can’t exactly control it. I could never control my family and that’s still apparent. I saw on the news my cousin Bella, her husband, and my cousin Cissy’s husband all had conversations with detectives recently.” Sirius shook his head and took the offered glass. He let his fingers linger on Remus’ for a moment.

“I’m sorry about all this, Sirius. You don’t deserve to have to deal with this shite. It’s like you, your brother, and Andromeda was cut from a different cloth than the rest of them.” Remus said before taking a drink.

“But you still wish you didn’t fancy me.”

“I— no. I want you, Sirius. I haven’t wanted anyone like this before and it’s terrifying. I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh,” Sirius said rather daftly. He wasn’t sure what else he could say. “I want to kiss you.”

“I want to kiss you too but what about everything?” Remus questioned him.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should take a leap? Sometimes it’s the only thing you can do and things fall into place.” Sirius set his glass down and Remus did as well.

“Whatever we do, maybe we don’t tell Teddy yet? We go on as if it’s the usual.” Remus frowned.

“Of course,” Sirius nodded. That sounded like a good suggestion no matter what because he didn’t want to hurt Teddy. As much as he didn’t want to hurt Remus, his son was even more precious.

“And everything else, I don’t know but I do know that I’m not sure I could stand myself if I let you go. I think I need to take the risk.”

Sirius was about to speak but Remus was now crowding him against the counter. “We’ll talk more later.”

“Later. Now I’m going to kiss you if that’s okay? I should have asked the last time.”

“God, please do,” Sirius all but whined as Remus pulled him closer. There was so much they needed to worry about but Sirius didn’t want to worry right now. He just wanted Remus to take him to bed as soon as possible.

Remus, Sirius decided in the first few moments of being kissed by the man, kissed like it was his favorite thing to do on the planet. He would switch between gentle, sweet kisses to kissing him with urgency. His tongue was soft and playful in Sirius’ mouth and his teeth nipped at his bottom lip. Sirius was sure he could kiss him for hours and not get bored.

“Bed. Take me to bed,” Sirius said as Remus sucked kisses onto his neck.

“Okay,” Remus chuckled deeply and pulled away. He placed a few kisses on his face before stepping completely back. “Come on, then.”

“Not to ruin the mood but you’re not shagging Gideon any longer are you?” He wanted the clarification.

“Oh, no, he and Caradoc finally got their acts together. I’m very happy for them.” Remus took Sirius’ hand and pulled him towards his room.

“Good,” Sirius sighed.

When they got to the bedroom, they took their time undressing one another between kisses. Sirius couldn’t keep his mouth off of Remus’. He was sure that this was going to be a problem in the future because he could snog him all bloody day. Sirius could also touch his body all day. Underneath his button down and trousers, Remus was strong and sturdy. Sirius very much hoped the man would pick him up and have his way with him one day.

“God, you’re so beautiful,” Remus appeared to have the same appreciation for Sirius’ body.

This of course caused Sirius to grin and into Remus’ shoulder as he felt a familiar flutter in his gut. He slid his hands into Remus’ navy briefs, trying not to get off track. As he pasted kisses to Remus’ chest, he wrapped his hand around Remus’ hardening length. It was long and thick and so perfect in his hand. Slowly he stroked him, twisting his wrist up.

“You’re so good, Sirius,” Remus said as he wrapped his hand around Sirius in turn.

The comment was nice but Sirius was wondering if Remus had caught on to his kink. Not that that was a bad thing but he didn’t realize he was so obvious about it. “You know?” Sirius asked, his hand still on Remus’ cock. He was having a hard time focusing on words.

“That you like being a good boy?” Remus grinned then captured Sirius’ lips with his own as he let out a groan. Remus’ hand stroked him firmly a few times before he pulled away again. “You were a little obvious whenever I gave you compliments. There were a few times when I was scratching Snuffles behind the ears calling him a good boy or good dog that I thought you were jealous.”

“I was!” Sirius let out an embarrassing squeak of a noise as Remus bit at a spot on his neck. “Jealous of a fucking dog because you were giving it love and attention and I want your love and attention because I’m a greedy person who is jealous of dogs apparently.”

Remus laughed then licked the spot he had bit with his warm, wet tongue. “That’s brilliant.”

“I have a praise kink and I only get that way with people who I’m immensely attracted to. It’s not like I get hard whenever someone says something nice to me.”

“That’s fine, I don’t think it’s that kinky. I’m probably kinker but I don’t want to talk about that right now. I just want to have some amazing vanilla sex with you.”

Sirius flushed, thinking about how kinky this mild manner and completely unassuming DI might be. “I’m sure it’s not completely vanilla,” Sirius grinned when Remus pushed him back on to the bed lightly. “I’m a bottom by the way.”

“Like I couldn’t tell that either,” Remus scoffed but his smile was showing off his dimples and crinkling his nose.

“I’m really that obvious?”

“You’re not just a bottom. You’re a sub who would be on your knees sitting on your heels in the corner with your nose touching the wall for the next few hours if I asked you to be, I’m sure.”

“Reading me like a book,” Sirius shook his head but was extremely turned on at the thought.

“One of the things I do daily is read people and you’re an easy read.”

“How do you want me now, then?”

“On your hands and knees, for me. Forearms are fine too, whatever’s more comfortable.”

Sirius did as asked and Remus told him how wonderful he was being. Sirius rested his head on his forearms as he listened to Remus open the drawer next to the bed.

A few seconds later Remus joined him on the bed behind him. Sirius could feel two things dropped on the bed next to him, lube and a condom. Then one of Remus’ hands wrapped around the base of his cock and the other rubbed the small of his back. Sirius’ toes curled, wondering what Remus was going to do next. Thankfully, he did not have to wait long because soon Remus’ tongue is teasing at his hole.

“Ah,” Sirius said because he was unable to think of anything intelligent to say as both of Remus’ large hands came up to spread him open.

Sirius would have loved to give a detailed description of what Remus was doing exactly with his tongue but his mind went completely blank. All he could feel was Remus’ tongue against him and inside him doing very dirty things that were just so perfect. Sirius saw stars behind his eyes when Remus pressed a finger inside of him. He moved it slowly then in one movement he lightly grazed Sirius’ prostate.

“Fucking hell,” Sirius groaned as Remus tortured him in the best possible way with his tongue and fingers after a few long, wonderful minutes.

“You’re doing so good, Sirius.”

“Fuck me,” Sirius moaned and reached to wrap his hand around himself after Remus added a third long finger. He was so hard, he just wanted to come already, preferably with Remus inside of him.

“Only if you ask nicely,” Remus batted his hand away and pressed a kiss to his back.

“Shite, okay,” Sirius was about to speak but Remus’ fingers did a wonderful little motion inside of him so he lost his train of thought for a few seconds.

“Pads, weren’t you going to ask me something?” Remus’ free hand wrapped around him again and began to stroke him quickly. His fingers were still moving inside of him as well.

“Fuck me, please Remus, please, ahh, I want your cock inside me. Fuck,” Sirius gripped the sheets in his fingers.

“All right,” Remus sat back after slowly moving his fingers out of him, no longer touching Sirius. Sirius let out a whimper at the loss of contact. “On your back.”

Sirius flipped over quickly to find himself looking up at Remus. There was something new in his eyes Sirius had never seen. It was dark and lustful and Sirius wanted him to look at him like that all the time. He wrapped his legs around Remus' waist and pulled him down for a kiss. Remus chuckled against his lips but returned the kiss enthusiastically as their cocks rubbed together.

“Okay, we need to stop because I want to be in you right now. I don’t want to come like this,” Remus pulled back, smiling at Sirius with his kiss swollen lips.

Once Remus got himself ready, he lined up against Sirius, the head of his cock pressing against Sirius. He leaned down to press his lips to Sirius’ once again then slowly thrust into Sirius.

Clutching Remus’ back, Sirius broke the kiss and threw his head back against the pillow as Remus filled him.

“You look so beautiful this way, Sirius. You look like you’ve been missing me inside you and you had no idea.” Remus whispered near his ear as he pet Sirius’ hair. Sirius rolled his head to the other side so Remus could kiss at his neck. “You feel so good, I could stay here forever. You’re so good for me Sirius.”

Sirius moved his hips a little as he felt himself flush all over at the praise, encouraging Remus to start moving. The other man took the hint and began to move slowly at first. His mouth was all over Sirius, on his neck and jaw and lips and chest. Sirius’s hands slid up and down Remus’ back.

It felt like they were moving together like that for hours and only a few minutes all at the same time, sweat pooling on their skin. But then Remus’ pace picked up he wrapped a hand around Sirius’. Between Remus hitting the right spot inside him over and over so quickly and Remus’ hand stroking him at the same pace, it did not take long to send Sirius over the edge. He cried out as the orgasm rolled through his body and Remus whispered words of encouragement.

By the time Sirius could see straight and could think of something other than “Fuck fuck, oh god,” Remus was laying on top of him, breathing as if he had just chased a criminal across London.

“Good boy,” Remus mumbled against Sirius’ shoulder.

There was no going back now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there's plot climax #1 (no pun intended). You may not be so happy with me with plot climax #2. But you'll be oh so happy in the end, I promise.


	8. Chapter 8

Remus woke up the morning after Teddy’s birthday to Sirius tracing lines on to his stomach. The touch was light and reassuring. The night before had been filled with sex, tea, a late night snack, and then more sex. It was a very good night but Remus was still worried about being in a relationship. He knew he couldn’t be scared forever or he’d end up old and alone with only his poor son to take care of him. Sirius was everything that he wanted. Remus needed to find a way to let it happen.

“Morning, having a panic, are we?” Sirius asked with a bit of a sad smile. He was wearing his glasses, a thick tortoiseshell frame that made him look adorable.

“No — maybe, sort of? I don’t generally act without thinking too much and yet you get me to do that.”

“It’s fun, isn’t it?” Sirius laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “I understand if you don’t want to continue but I think I’ll probably combust if I know you want me like this too. But I’ll deal, I’m good with suppressing emotions when I need to. Thought I’ve been doing it well for months now but apparently not.”

Remus shook his head, he didn’t want it to go back to that. He couldn’t suppress how he felt about Sirius anymore than not telling his son that he and Sirius were together. That was probably as far as he could go with hiding those emotions. “I can’t say I regret anything. I would say take it slow but I don’t know how we could possibly do that after last night.”

Sirius grinned like the Cheshire Cat before moving to straddle him, “Remus I’ve never been in love before. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but I just thought it wasn’t for me. I’ve been in plenty of relationships, but nothing that stuck and I never felt like I was in love. It never felt deeper than a mutual attraction. I don’t want to say I love you yet but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. We’ll go as slow as we need to with Teddy and everything but I don’t want to stop this.”

“I don’t want to stop it either,” Remus ran his hand up Sirius’ side.

“Maybe Kingsley has found something and we’ll find out Riddle and his crew has been taken down today. That will be one less thing to worry about.” Sirius frowned. Remus hated that his family got the other man so down. He completely understood why Sirius felt that way.

“Don’t think about them,” Remus insisted, his hand running over Sirius' chest. He let his fingers linger over the other man’s nipples. “We can’t control that but I have faith in Project Team. I don’t care about them either. I only care about you right now anyway.”

Sirius nodded as Remus’ index finger traced the trail of black hair on his lower abdomen. His cock looked like it was very interested in what Remus was going to do. But then Sirius clasped him around the wrist gently. “Wait, let me do something for you. You were so good to me last night and I really want to take you in my mouth and make you come.”

“Anything you want, Sirius.” Remus grinned at him. He had never been with anyone who was so eager to please in bed as Sirius was. It was rather brilliant.

Sirius dropped a line of kisses down his chest and abdomen, straight for Remus’ half-hard cock. Remus threw the duvet back so he could watch Sirius. Sirius paused to pull his long black hair back into a quick messy bun with the elastic around his wrist. Then he got on his knees and leaned forward in front of Remus.

“You should wear your glasses more often,” Remus commented, reaching down to caress Sirius’ cheek.

Sirius smiled as Remus’ thumb traced his bottom lip, “If you look at me like that with them on, I’ll wear them all the time. Except I’m not sure how much we’ll get done then.”

Remus bit his lip as Sirius opened his mouth wide enough to let Remus’ thumb slide in. Sirius swirled his tongue around it then sucked before moving his head back and letting Remus’ thumb drop from his mouth. The dark haired man leaned forward and licked a strip up Remus’ cock.

“You’re so beautiful,” Remus said with a moan and Sirius made a keening sound, wrapping one hand around Remus and another around himself.

Sirius’ tongue lightly flicked out to Remus’ glans before his tongue swirled around it and followed exactly what he had done to the thumb. Sirius slowly took him further into his mouth, his hand stroking up and down on the part of the length his lips weren’t around. “God, you look perfect like that.”

Sirius’ hips twitched has worked himself in his hand. Remus threaded his fingers through Sirius’ hair and watched the man suck his cock like it was what he was always meant to do. Remus kept the praise pouring out of his mouth because it was so easy. Well, it was easy until Remus couldn’t put two words together when Sirius’ head began to bob quickly and his tongue did some wonderful things.

“Fuck, yes, Sirius — oh,” He came, gripping Sirius’ hair tightly to keep him in place. After Remus finished pulsing into Sirius’ mouth, he pulled off and rested his cheek against Remus’ thigh. A few strokes of his own hand later he came.

When he could think just a bit, Remus pulled Sirius back up for a kiss, tasting himself on his tongue. Sirius pulled back with a funny look on his face, “Morning breath and come, not exactly the sweetest kiss.”

“Mmm, no but it’s from you so I like it very much.”

“God, Remus, if you’re going to praise me all the time, I’m going to be a mess.” He laughed flopping back on to the pillow beside Remus.

“We should shower. We’re wanted over the Potter’s for a late lunch instead of dinner. Lily thought it’d be a good idea because the sprogs and the Potters might be tired from a long night.”

“True,” Sirius sighed. “Good thing I’ve kept extra clothes here.”

“What an added bonus.” Remus reached over to thread his fingers with Sirius’.

“Speaking of bonuses, where are my chocolate biscuits?” Sirius asked, sending both men into a fit of giggles.

Eventually, they got out of bed and enjoyed a nice long shower before getting ready to go to Lily and James’. Remus loved how easily Sirius fit into his life. It was as if he was always meant to be there but neither of them were ready to have a go of it until now. Remus hoped things would continue to work.

When they get to the Potters, Lily, James, Teddy, and Harry all look very tired but content. They were watching a movie on telly as lunch cooked. Both Lily and James gave them inquisitive looks. Was he that obvious about shagging Sirius? Probably not, it had to be the other man giving them away.

Lily asked Sirius to help her in the kitchen and the kids begged to go outside so James and Remus went out to the back garden with them. It was a beautiful day now that the rain had passed. James and Remus wiped off the table and chairs outside, deciding it was a perfect day to eat outside.

“So, you and Sirius shagged last night?” James asked in a low voice as Harry and Teddy were in the far corner of the garden with the cat.

“How do you know?”

“You’re so happy and relaxed. You both look like you’ve been doing it all day.”

“Not too far off,” Remus muttered.

“And Sirius has like three hickeys.” James made a face.

Remus chuckled, he thought he kept them low enough but when Sirius put his shirt on he was wrong. He liked it. He wanted people to know that Sirius was taken and Sirius was his.

“We’re in our thirties, hickeys are for teenagers.”

“You’re just boring,” Remus insisted to his best mate.

“Probably some kinky thing you’re into. Is this just sex like with Gid?”

“No,” Remus shook his head. “It’s real. We’re not going to tell Teddy yet but we’re going to try. There’s so much shite happening, it’s going to be some work but I think it might be worth it.”

“It’s so going to be worth it! I always knew you two were meant to be together. Knew since I met you. I think I even told Sirius I found his future husband when we met.”

Remus laughed, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to survive a week to even begin with.”

***

Sirius felt as if he was walking on air Monday morning. He and Remus were finally starting their relationship. It was going to be work but it was work that Sirius was very interested in doing. Speaking of work, he still was going to watch Teddy. There was no way he was going to leave Remus and Teddy high and dry. Remus had asked him about that the day before. He was hesitant to be paying the man he was dating, so Sirius told him to stop paying him. He really didn’t need the money.

As usual, when Sirius walked in the door of the Lupins, Remus was at the coffee maker. He even looked a little more bright eyed and bushy tailed than he did most mornings. Remus abandoned the watch on his coffee and pulled Sirius over for a kiss. Yes, this was a much better way to start the mornings, Sirius sighed when Remus pulled back. “Good morning, Sirius.”

“Morning, Remus.” He placed a few kisses on his jawline.

“Do you think Teddy would realize that you stayed the night if you got up and changed before he woke up?”

Sirius snickered as Remus began to bite just under his collar. “I don’t know. He’s a smart kid.”

“Mmm, true.”

“I can stay later tonight if you want. I don’t have to stay the night. I’d love to stay the full night but — I don’t know.” Sirius groaned as Remus palmed him through his jeans. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“Just a little death.”

“No time for shagging right now,” Sirius said, attempting to sound authoritative but it came out more of a complaint.

Remus laughed and moved away to retrieve his coffee. “Can’t help that you’re so bloody fucking handsome.”

“Cheeky devil,” Sirius complained half heartedly, going to grab the bread.

“I know,” Remus said as Teddy’s door opened. “Have a good day today.” He kissed Sirius once more before the boy came into the kitchen.

“You too, be safe.”

“Always,” Remus spoke just as Teddy came into the kitchen.

“Bye Da,” Teddy ran over to his dad for a hug.

“Bye, Teddy. I’ll see you later, okay?”

Teddy nodded and gave him one more squeeze before Remus set him down. Remus gave Sirius another nod then left for the day. Sirius tried not to sigh at his boyfriend (BOYFRIEND!) leaving. It was just another day watching Teddy.

“Thirius, can we go to the park today?”

“Sure, kid, it’s supposed to be nice out. I’m sure Snuffles will love a nice walk. What if we went to Regent’s Park and went to the zoo?”

“YEAH!”

“We can stop and get some ice cream on the way, as long as you don’t tell your dad.” It wasn’t that Remus would care, he just knew Teddy would love to think they were secretive.

“Okay,” Teddy grinned and nodded.

“But first, toast!” Sirius said. “Then we brush teeth, change, and go about our day. Deal?”

“Deal!” Teddy bounced on his toes eagerly.

Sirius had cared for many kids in his classes over the last few years. He loved them for many different reasons. But he loved and cared for Teddy differently somehow, as if he was his own. He wasn’t sure if it was because he fancied Remus so much and Teddy was just an extension of Remus, or if Teddy was just a special kid. Sirius never really wanted a child of his own but Teddy made him feel like he wanted ten.

Soon enough, Snuffles was on his lead and they were off into the sunny April day. Sirius led them to the Regent’s Park. Teddy chattered the whole way there about animals that he wanted to see. He seemed to be extra excited about the prospect of seeing anteaters today. Sirius wished he was as excited but he felt something uneasy in his gut. He tried to push it down because he was sure he was paranoid. There was no one following, he looked around many times.

They walked down a quiet path. Sirius thought it was eerily quiet. He chewed on his bottom lip and reached down to take Teddy’s hand. Sirius looked behind them and again, saw nothing. He could have sworn he heard something rustling in the bushes.

As he was about to pick Teddy up and just start running, Snuffles came to a stop and began barking. The dog never barked — ever.

Then he heard next to him footsteps and a hauntingly familiar voice, “Hello, cousin.”

Before he could make any move, it all went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very curious: what do you think is going to happen next?


	9. Chapter 9

Something was going on if the phone lines lighting up in front of Remus were going to tell him anything. It was mainly Kidnap Unit and Project Team’s lines there were going crazy. Not that anything was a good sign, but their’s going off at once like that normally spelt big trouble. It was a surprised his unit wasn’t involved as well.

Em was sitting across from him looking at her phone with a raised eyebrow. “This doesn’t look like it’s going to be good.”

When Remus was about to respond to her, his phone rang. It wasn’t Moody, but Moody’s boss, Dumbledore. “Lupin, can you come into my office?” He asked with a calm voice.

“Just me, sir or do you need Vance as well?” Remus said, glancing over at her. She looked perplexed at the conversation.

Dumbledore paused for a moment, “You may bring her as well.”

Remus frowned, unsure of what that meant. It normally wasn’t good to be going to your supervisor’s supervisor. If Em could be there then it couldn’t be too terrible, right? “Be there in a moment, sir.”

“See you soon.” Dumbledore hung up.

“We got to go see Albus.” Remus informed his partner as he hung up the phone.

“Why?” She stood up at the same time as Remus did.

“He didn’t say. Maybe we’re needed with whatever is happening downstairs?” Remus shrugged, hoping that and not that he had done something wrong that he didn’t realize. That was very doubtful, so it must have had something to do with the case.

By the time they made it up to Albus’ office on the next floor, Remus was feeling nauseous. Even though he had been trying to stay positive, he felt like something was wrong. When he opened the door, to Albus’ office Dumbledore, Moody, Shacklebolt, and Hestia Jones of the Kidnap Unit were there around his conference table. They were all looking serious.

“What the Death Eaters do now? Kidnap Prince Harry’s kid?” Em asked, trying to break the soberness in the room.

“No, Mister Lupin,” Dumbledore began and Remus suddenly realized they were going to tell him something terrible. His mind immediately jumped to Teddy and Sirius. He hadn’t received a text from Sirius at all yet. Normally he’d get pictures of Teddy doing various things. He thought maybe Sirius didn’t want to seem like he was too needy.

“What happened? Are Teddy and Sirius okay?” Remus said quickly, his palm sweating.

“Remus,” Hestia said now. “Sirius Black was found unconscious in Regent’s Park not too long ago. When he came to he informed the people who found him that your son was missing along with his dog. He was hit over the head after he heard his cousin Bellatrix’s voice and footsteps behind him. A passerby found him but we’re unsure of the passage of time. We don’t think it was too long but by the time we got there, we couldn’t find a trace fo Bellatrix Lestrange or any of the other Death Eaters. Project Team and I are working closely together—”

“He’s gone,” Remus said, as if he was just clicking in his brain that these people took his son. His son was missing and who knew what was happening to him. He couldn’t do anything to help either. “My son — he’s — he’s gone?”

This was his worst nightmare. He had passing horrifying ideas of this happening, especially since Sirius’ family become bolder then Peter showed up at the library that time. He never earnestly thought that his son would be involved. Remus just thought he was too protective or anxious. Maybe he should have listened to Sirius and his mother about stepping back. For some reason, he felt like that didn’t matter. They knew Teddy was important to Sirius now.

“We’re looking for him. We have people all over trying to find Teddy and his kidnappers.”

“Did they leave a ransom note?” Remus asked.

“No note yet,” Moody said. “There will be one, we’re sure. The Death Eaters don’t do things without having a deeper motive.”

“It’s about whatever it is they’re looking for. They probably think that Sirius has it.” Remus said, looking at Kingsley. “Go turn over his parent’s place. He doesn’t give a shite about it. He’s told me before that he might as well give it to us because everything in it is probably stolen property. It’s probably there.”

“We’re already looking at it, Black said the same thing.”

Remus ran a hand through his hair and Em put a hand on his back. “Remus, do you need water or anything?”

Remus wasn’t sure how to act or what to say. He felt this all-consuming dread and fear that he was going to lose his son but he didn’t know what to do. He wanted to go find the Death Eaters but he knew that he’d be useless in the field. He took a seat in the empty chair closest to him and put his head in his hands.

“I’m getting you water,” Em said curtly then left the room.

“Has anything strange happened recently?” Hestia asked. “Anyone following you? Anyone leaving any weird notes or… anything?”

Remus shook his head then raised it to look at the others in the room, “No. Sirius ran into Pettigrew at the library the other week. I told Kingsley when I sent him the ledger. Other than that we haven’t seen or heard anything odd.”

“Pettigrew is Sirius’ old friend?”

“Yes, and old mates with my other good friends, James and Lily. That’s how Sirius started watching Teddy, because he knew James and Lily. He’s been trying to distance himself from his family since he was a preteen.” Remus knew Sirius was probably a complete wreck wherever he was. “Where is Sirius?”

“Downstairs talking to my team,” Hestia said. “Has Sirius ever seemed like he was keeping a secret from you?”

“No, you’re not — he would never do this. He loves Teddy.” Remus shook his head. There was no doubt in his mind about that. “He hates his family more than anything and wants nothing to do with them and all of this shite. His brother was emancipated when he was sixteen to go live with Sirius and their uncle in The States. They’re good people who happened to come from a bunch of shitty people.” Remus said. “Can I see Sirius, please?”

Hestia looked at Dumbledore and nodded, “After he’s done with my team. You can.”

When Em came back with the water, everyone else left the room. Remus assumed they were going to set a plan for what was going to happen next. He wished he could have helped because would never let him near it. Remus’ stomach churned, wondering why they hadn’t got a ransom note yet. They were horrible people but they had to have taken Teddy for a reason. They wanted something they thought Sirius had, just like they thought Slughorn and Crouch had whatever it was. Probably the ledger.

“You look like you’re going to be ill, do you need the bin?”

“No,” Remus cleared his throat and took a slow sip of the water.

“I’m sorry, Remus.”

He rubbed his face, “Sirius and I got together this weekend.”

“No! Oh, I wish I could be happier. He’s probably beside himself down there.”

“I know he is.” Remus took a deep breath through his nose. “My mother is going to lose her mind. She was going on about this before and how Sirius isn’t safe for Teddy. I didn’t want to think that. I couldn’t — it didn’t seem like something that could actually happen.”

“I’m sure it didn’t seem that way. I didn’t think it could either.” Em shook her head. “Families suck sometimes and Sirius’ family is just another level.”

They were silent for a few moments, which was too unsettling to Remus. All he could hear and see in his head were kidnapping statistics and crime statistics and all the Death Eater scenes he had witnessed himself. “Talk to me, please. I can’t stand this silence. Tell me something, fucking anything, don’t care if it bad and inappropriate jokes. I can’t sit here thinking about what’s happening to Teddy like this.”

Em began babbling about anything and everything until the door opened again. It barely helped but it was better than the silence. Moody was stepped aside to let Sirius in. The other man was paler than Remus thought he could get. His eyes were red and bloodshot from crying. Remus got out of his chair and hugged him.

“I’m sorry, Remus. I’m so sorry,” Sirius began to cry into his shoulder and Remus felt his own tears well up. He wasn’t sure if he should be surprised that it took him so long to cry.

***

Sirius wasn’t sure why Remus didn’t punch him when he walked in the door. It was all Sirius’ fault that Remus didn’t know where his son was. If Sirius had just stayed back in The States none of this would have happened, at least Remus wouldn’t have been involved at all. Teddy would have been safe. But no, he had to go back and meet the Lupins and fall right into something that felt so safe for him.

When Sirius had woken up in the park, his head was aching. An older woman was staring down at him with concern and a man on the phone. The man on the phone was talking to 999 it seemed. The woman asked if Sirius was okay and he jumped up from the ground demanding Teddy. She asked who Teddy was and he told her but she shook her head, saying there was no child around. There wasn’t a dog around either. He stood there dumbfounded for a moment then told the man on the phone that there was a missing a child — a child that belonged to a DI and that the Death Eaters took him.

Needless to say, it didn’t take very long for what seemed like the entire Metropolitan Police Service to show up to where he was in Regent’s Park. At least it seemed like it happened in a blink, Sirius' head was hurting and he kept seeing spots. All he could think about was Teddy and how he was going to get the boy back. He wasn’t sure how he was going to face Remus at that point. His son had been taken by Sirius’ family on Sirius’ watch.

Sirius was told to go to the hospital for his head but he refused. Instead, he was taken to New Scotland Yard. He was sat in a room and asked a million questions. Both the people who took care of kidnapping and the people who were involved in organized crime talked to him. By the time they got out everything they possibly could out of him, Sirius’ head was spinning.

After it all, a gruff looking man, Sirius recognized by how Remus spoke of him as Moody, came into the room. He informed Sirius that Remus wanted to see him and he was lead to another office on another floor. Sirius wasn’t sure how long had passed since he had been knocked out but it seemed like it all just happened just an hour ago.

When Sirius entered the room, he couldn’t help but start crying as soon as he laid eyes on Remus. It only got worse when the other man wrapped his arms around him and he started to sob as well. Sirius didn’t understand how Remus was even speaking to him. It was probably the shock, but after it all, Sirius knew he was going not to be wanted around any longer by Remus or the Potters or anyone who knew Teddy. He couldn’t blame them. He was going to have to go back to The States.

“I’m so sorry,” Sirius said after he pulled away from Remus. He wiped his eyes and sat in one of the chairs around the table. On the table were Remus and Sirius’ phones now. Sirius had turned his phone over to make sure there was nothing important on there.

“They might call either of you or us here. They’ll know that you were taken here, I’m sure,” A short brunette woman who had spoken to him earlier said. She seemed to be in charge of the Kidnapping Unit. Sirius couldn’t remember her name.

Remus said something to her but Sirius was staring at his phone. He jumped when someone put a hand on his forearm. He looked up to see Em, Remus’ partner sitting next to him. “Are you okay, Sirius?”

“I’m fine.” Sirius insisted. He didn’t feel fine for a multitude of reasons. “Well, as fine as I can be given the circumstances.”

As he spoke his phone went off, pinging that he had got a text message. Sirius jumped to grab it. The screen showed an audio text from a blocked number. He swallowed thickly as he opened his phone with a shaking finger swipe then pressed play.

Then Peter’s voice started to speak, “Hello, Sirius, how are you? It’s been a very long time and I think we should become acquainted again. Running into you the other week wasn’t an accident. I think you know that. You have something we want that’s very important. It seems that we have something of yours— well, of your DI’s. Get us the book we need to Grimmauld by seven tonight or the boy and the dog won’t be around for breakfast. Do come alone, we don’t want any company or they won’t make it either.”

When the audio came to a stop there was so much commotion around him that he thought he was going to pass out. He held on tight to the table. “The book, what book?” Em asked.

“The ledger, Sirius, is it the ledger?”

“I— I don’t know, I guess so? I mean, that’s the oddest thing I’ve found at my parent’s place so far. It’s all the in Boston with my brother.” Sirius put a hand over his face. “They’re going to — they’re going to…”

“They won’t, Sirius. We know they’re going to be at Grimmauld tonight. We’ll be able to figure something out,” The man who ran organized crime spoke.

“I’m going to be sick,” Sirius said suddenly. He needed to get to Grimmauld now. He knew the people in that room would never let him but he also knew that if he didn’t show alone then they would hurt Teddy.

“It’s straight out this door to the left,” Em said to him softly under the din the room.

Sirius couldn’t look at Remus but he did manage to swipe his phone off the table. He knew he wasn’t going to see his for a while now and he needed to talk to Regulus. Maybe he could get him the scan again. There was no getting into Remus’ email on his phone he didn’t have his work account setup on there.

With the noise and movement and chatter in the room, Sirius got out freely and instead of going straight for the bathroom, he took the stairs. As he did, he entered Remus’ passcode. It was easy, Teddy’s birthday. That made Sirius feel very ill again but he pressed on. He needed to clear this up himself because it was his fault. Afterward, everything could go back to how it was and Teddy would be okay and with his dad. Sirius would live far away and not hurt anyone.

He dialed Regulus as he got to the last flight of stairs of the building. “Who’s this?”

“It’s me.”

“Figured, London number and all. Why are you—”

“Remus’ phone. They took Teddy, Regulus,” He said sharply before opening the door to the bottom floor. Sirius went straight for the exit.

“What? They?”

“Our bleeding relatives and the other bastards. They knocked me out and — look, I can’t explain it all right now but I just got the ransom from Peter and they want me to bring that ledger with me to Grimmauld by tonight or they’re going to hurt Teddy. Doubt they’re going actually to be there, it’s getting turned over right now but. I don’t know. I need to do something. Could you email me the scans?”

“Sirius, they have people who do negotiations and—”

“I know what they’ll do, Reg.” Sirius said as he turned down a side street. “Send me the scans, please.”

Regulus paused, “Fine but you’re going to get yourself killed!”

“I won’t.”

“That doesn’t leave me feeling warm and fuzzy.”

“Regulus, I have to do this.”

Just as Sirius spoke those words, two sets of arms grabbed him and pulled him into a car. Then his world went black again — what a fucking day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise Double Update for all the love I've been getting. I know it's still going to leave you wanting more but you'll get more sooner, I guess?

The next time Sirius was aware of his surroundings, he could hear two people arguing close by and a dog barking in the distance. Not any dog, it was Snuffles’ bark. Not that the dog bothered to bark much. Still, he knew what his dog sounded like.

Sirius opened his eyes to see that he was on the floor of a place he had been as a child a few times, the Malfoy Manor. It was outside the city and a favorite haunt of his parent’s. The Malfoy’s son had married his cousin Narcissa but the last Sirius knew, the Malfoy Manor went into disrepair because no one was staying there after the elder Malfoy’s left for Argentina to evade tax fraud or something along those lines.

Sirius blinked a few times and things came into focus a little more. He felt heavy, as if he had been drugged. It was different than being knocked out. Everything was a little fuzzy around the edges. Sirius licked his lips before trying to push himself to sit up. At that moment he realized his hands and legs were tied together. If he weren’t in imminent danger, just drugged, and suffering from a head injury, he would have been a witty remark about being tied up. That part of his brain was not working at the moment.

“Oh, look who’s with us,” Bellatrix said in an acidic tone.

“I knew you’d get away and come after us by yourself, can’t help yourself, can you Padfoot? Always impulsive.” Peter questioned as the two came closer to him. Bellatrix appeared to be even crazier than he remembered her with her messy black hair and an evil glint in her eyes.

“Let Teddy go and do whatever you need to do with me. I don’t have the bloody book.” Sirius said.

“We think you do,” Another voice spoke from the corner of the room that Sirius couldn’t see. He recognized the voice as Riddle’s. It made Sirius’ skin crawl, just as it did when he was younger. The man was a creep, no way around it. “Sirius, that book is very important to us. We need it now.”

Sirius wondered if he should tell them where it was, in Boston and also in possession of Shacklebolt and the rest of the men and women who took care of organized crime. He knew that if he told them that then it might make things worse for him. “I won’t talk, not until I see Teddy.”

Riddle scoffed, his footsteps moved closer to Sirius. He could practically feel the man at his back. “You do know something.”

“Maybe but I need to see Teddy first. I won’t tell you anything without seeing that he’s safe and unharmed.” Sirius said. He wasn’t really sure what he was going to do after that but Teddy was the reason he was here.

Riddle kicked him in the back and Sirius curled in on himself as the pain radiated through his body. “You don’t get to negotiate.”

“You said you’d let Teddy go if I brought you information.” Sirius said through gritted teeth.

“If you brought us the book,” Bellatrix amended.

“Well, I don’t have the bleeding book on me so maybe,” Sirius was panting now. “Maybe we have to renegotiate? I see Teddy and then I tell you what I know.”

There was a long moment of silence then Riddle spoke, “Fine, you can see the boy but then you need to start talking. If you don’t, we won’t be so kind.”

“Yes, you’re just so lovely right now,” That earned Sirius another kick. He needed to keep his mouth shut.

“How do you shut your stupid mutt up?” Peter questioned him as Bellatrix left the room.

Sirius struggled to sit up. “If you let Teddy be with him, I think it will help. I swear, he loves Teddy. Let the kid pet him and he’ll calm down.”

Peter nodded, looking in the direction of the barking.

Focusing on his breathing, because he felt like he was going to faint at any moment, Sirius wondered what was going to happen to him. He needed to find a way to make sure that Teddy survived. How was he going to do that now? Fuck, maybe he should have thought about this all more before making a rash decision? He hadn’t been so impulsive since he was in uni.

“Padfoot!” Teddy’s little voice called out as he was escorted into the room by his cousin Cissy. His eyes were red and his cheeks were wet from crying. Sirius looked up at his cousin with a glare. At least she had the right to look somewhat ashamed.

“Teddy, love,” Sirius asked as Teddy wrapped his arms around Sirius’ neck tightly. “Are you okay?”

Teddy nodded, “I wanna go home.”

“I know, soon. You’ll be going home soon. Just listen, okay? Whatever Cissy says, you should listen until you see your Da or someone else you know.” Sirius said. He had a feeling that Cissy wouldn’t let anything happen to a kid. She had one of her own and the way she was looking spoke volumes to him. “You won’t let anything happen to him, will you Cissy?”

Narcissa looked at him with wide eyes, not expecting that. She quietly shook her head.

“You have a boy now too, don’t you? I think he’d be about Teddy’s age.” Sirius said, earning another kick to his back. “Ah, ah, okay, Teddy, let go, love. You need to go now.”

“But — but —” His bottom lip wobbled when he moved away but still stayed in arm's length of Sirius.

“It’s going to be fine, Teddy, all right? I promise you that you will be okay.” Sirius hated making promises he couldn’t keep but he didn’t know what else to do. “You’ll be back with Da before you know it.”

“And you.”

“Yeah, yes, and me,” Sirius said, feeling tears in his own eyes now. “Go back with Cissy, okay?”

Teddy bit his lip and looked at Cissy. She was standing there with her white-blonde hair, trying not to meet Sirius’ eyes. He sometimes wondered if she had what he had in him, but just never really went with it. Andi was her sister and turned out okay. Bella was batshit though. Sirius had to have a little faith that one of his other family members had some sanity left in them outside of the ones he knew.

Once Teddy was taken from the room, and Peter managed to get Snuffles to wherever they were keeping Teddy, the attention turned to him. “So, Black,” Riddle said and Bella kicked Sirius’ shoulder to push him down. “Where is the book?”

“It’s in Boston with my brother,” Sirius said honestly. “He took it to see if he could figure out what it all meant.”

Bella let out a cackle, “Can we just start breaking his bones?”

Riddle finally came into view instead of standing out of his sight line. He was still tall, but bald now. Sirius remembered him with shiny dark hair on top of his head. He still looked like a slimy git. “Sirius, is it really with your brother?”

“Yes,” Sirius said.

“Anywhere else?”

Sirius thought for a moment then shook his head.

“Start with his right hand,” Riddle nodded and Sirius swallowed the lump in his throat.

***

Remus could barely listen to what his colleagues were saying around him but he did notice that Sirius had been gone a long time. He didn’t look well when he left but Remus’ mind was reeling with the fact that the Death Eaters were holding his son in return of a book that wasn’t even in the country. It didn’t sound like something that was going to end well. He didn’t want to think about life with Teddy.

“Is someone going to check on him?” Remus asked loudly, making everyone stop. He hadn’t meant to sound so angry or annoyed. “Sirius — he’s… he hasn’t come back yet.”

The group looked at one another the Moody and Kingsley took off out of the door. Remus wondered why they both acted like that. It wasn’t as if Sirius had taken Teddy. “I need to go talk to my team, Remus you stay here okay?” Hestia said to him kindly.

Remus just nodded before she left the office.

“Is there anything we can do?” Em asked Dumbledore. The man shook his head.

“Why would they go to Grimmauld? They have to know that we already have officers there.” Remus said as something clicked in his head for him. It was as if he could be a coherent thought together in some time. “They’re trying to throw us off.”

“Remus, people are working on this. They’re all just as capable as you are. I know it’s going to be difficult but you’re going to need to take a st—”

“He’s gone, Black’s gone,” Moody said coming in without Kingsley.

“What the bloody hell do you mean he’s gone?” Remus stood up, not sure what to do with himself. He felt like he wasn’t even really in his body any longer.

“He’s no longer on the property. We’re already looking at the CCTV, Lupin.”

As Moody stopped speaking because Dumbledore’s phone rang. Remus looked to Em, who was standing up as well. He reached out to put a hand on his shoulder as Dumbledore answered his phone. “Yes… he is… yes… he’ll only talk to us if he’s here… okay… hang on a moment, keep him on the line…” Dumbledore set the phone back on the receiver. “Sirius Black’s brother is on the phone, saying he has information for us. I’m going to get Hestia and Kingsley back up here then we’ll hear what he has to say.”

Remus nodded as he began to pace. He hoped that Regulus had something important for them to lead them down the right path. He was smart, right? Sirius said he was studying physics at Harvard for god's sake.

When Hestia and Kingsley joined them again, Dumbledore put the phone that was on the conference room table on speaker and answered the line that Regulus is on. “Hello, Regulus, this is Kingsley Shacklebolt. I’m head of Project Team.”

“Yeah, yeah, organized crime. They’re not going to Grimmauld. Sirius called me on Remus’ phone then it went dead, but he said that they were expecting him at Grimmauld. They’re not that daft.”

“We’ve figured,” Hestia chimed in. “Do you know where they would go, Regulus?”

“Probably the Malfoy Manor,” Regulus said. “I can’t remember where it is but I think it’s northwest of the city. Maybe forty minutes out. Remus, are you okay?”

“As okay as I can be, Reg. Did he, um, say why he left?”

“Because he’s an idiot who makes impulsive choices that end up hurting him and everyone around him. He just wanted to help Teddy but I told him this isn’t the right way. He said that he knew they weren’t going to be at Grimmauld. He was just worried because you all don’t have the book,” Regulus sounded as if he was unzipping a bag.

“We know where the manor is, Regulus. Is there anything else you can tell us? Who might be there?” Kingsley asked.

“I don’t know, it’s been so long. We were kept out of things when we were younger. Especially me.”

Remus frowned, not wanting to think about life was like for the Black brothers when they were kids.

“If I had to guess, I’d say the cousins and their husbands: Bellatrix and Narcissa. I forget who they married but I’m sure it's in your records somewhere. I wouldn’t doubt Pettigrew as well because he saw Sirius at the library, right? Asked him if he read anything.”

“Thank you Regulus.”

“I’m coming to London now. I want to make sure he’s okay and I don’t know… I feel like I need to be there. I’m bringing the book too.”

“Okay, we’ll see you soon. Hopefully by the time you get here it will all be taken care of.”

Remus hoped so too as he bit at his nails.

“We’re going to the Manor,” Kingsley said. “We already were working on something there. We figured out the code in the ledger. It has to do with the movement of money in the group and who owes the Blacks/Riddle money. It gets a lot of people in trouble, including the people that might be in the manor right now. That’s why they want it so bad.”

Remus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It should have been reassuring that they knew about this but it wasn’t. It just meant they were going to go into this house to arrest everyone and his son was going to be in the middle of it all. Sirius was too.

“Can I come with you?” Remus knew he sounded desperate.

“No, absolutely not,” Moody said. “You’re to stay here with Albus and Em.”

“No, I should go,” Em shook her head. “Teddy’s going to need to see someone that he recognizes, right? If you’re not going to let Remus go, I should. I’ll stay in a car if I have to but I should be there if he can’t be.”

Remus looked at his partner who was leaning on the table looking very firm in her stance.

“She’s right, it will be good to have someone there Teddy’s familiar with.”

“Very well then, Vance,” Kingsley agreed.

“Okay, let’s do this then.”


	11. Chapter 11

Remus waited in Dumbledore’s office for what seemed like an eternity. It may have been but he refused to watch the clock because he thought he’d go crazy if he did. He busied himself with pacing and Dumbledore’s attempt at a pleasant conversation. All that was going through his head was what was happening at the Malfoy Manor. The only thing that was going to make him feel better was getting Teddy into his arms. Then seeing Sirius and telling how bloody stupid he was. But he hoped he’d get the chance to tell him off then hug him and kiss him again because god knows what they were doing to him there.

At some point in Remus’ anxiety spiral, Dumbledore’s line rang and Remus’ heart was in his throat. He stopped pacing as Dumbledore answered calmly. Remus felt himself relax when he saw a slight smile on the man’s face. “Remus, it’s for you.”

Remus grabbed the phone out of Dumbledore’s hand. He felt relief flood his body. “Teddy?”

“Da! Da! I miss you,” Teddy cried. “I don’t like it here.”

“Are you okay?”

“Ye-yes. I did what Padfoot thaid. I thayed with Thizzy and the made thure I didn’t get hurt. But — but Padfoot.”

Remus’ stomach was in knots again, some of his relief melting away. He was thrilled that Teddy was okay but Sirius couldn’t be hurt either. “Where are you going, love?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is Em here?”

“Yeah.”

“Give her the phone for me, Teddy. I’ll see you very soon. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Da.” He said with a sniffle.

Remus wiped a tear that had escaped his eyes. He wasn’t sure when he had started to tear up. His mind was so consumed with everything else.

“Remus, he’s fine. Not a scratch but they want to make sure at St. Mungo’s.” Em’s voice said reassuringly. “We’ll meet you there. I’ll stay with him the whole time.”

“Thank you, Em.”

“No worries.”

“What’s wrong with Sirius?” He asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s good. I didn’t even see him but I was told he was off in an ambulance before they even had Riddle in cuffs. They told me he'd be at Mungo’s too, though but I don’t have details.”

“Okay,” Remus rubbed his eyes. “He needs to stay alive so I can kill him myself for doing that. I don’t mean that,” Remus glanced at Dumbledore who just let out a low chuckle.

“They’ll take good care of him. Don’t be too harsh either, Remus. He was trying to keep Teddy safe.”

“In the daftest way.” Remus shook his head. “I’ll see you soon. Give Teddy a big squeeze for me, will you?”

“Doing so right now.”

As soon as Remus was off the phone, Dumbledore got someone to drive Remus over to Mungo’s. He was surprised it was dark when he went outside but it shouldn’t have been too surprising. He was bloody exhausted and so much had happened. It felt like it wasn’t his life he was living at the moment.

When he got in, he was surprised to see his mother, Lily, and James in the waiting room he was led to by the officer who drove him. They all hugged him and asked what had happened. Remus explained the best he could his day. They told him that Em had called them and told them everything was fine but they needed to meet him there. All Remus wanted was to see Teddy, and thankfully that happened only five minutes later.

“Da!” Teddy said, running into the room. He looked just as he had when Remus left his morning, just in his day clothes and not night clothes. Except Teddy looked tired in a different way than being sleepy in the morning.

“Teddy, oh god, thank god you’re okay,” He picked Teddy up and hugged him tightly.

“Padfoot tried to help,” Teddy said with a sniffle. “He told me to listen. I did.”

“Good, that’s good,” Remus was not going to let go of his son for a while, he decided. Teddy was going to be very annoyed soon that Remus was giving him such a long hug.

“I want Padfoot.”

“I know,” Remus said as a doctor came into the room with Em.

“Hi, Mister Lupin, I just checked Teddy to see if he was okay and he’s doing brilliantly.”

“Thank you so much,” Remus sighed. “Do you know anything about Sirius Black? He came in with Teddy. Or before Teddy, I guess.”

The doctor shook his head, “I’ll see what I can find for you folks.”

“Thank you.” Remus said as the doctor took his leave.

“Em, what happened?” James asked as Remus’ mam came over and rubbed Teddy’s back. “At the Malfoys, I mean.”

“Well, when we got there the house was surrounded. Riddle and the ones in there opened fired on the officers. They were able to stop things from going on too long. A woman, Narcissa Black apparently, she came out carry Teddy with her hands up before it all ended even. She said she would never live with herself if the kid got hurt. She said she told them not to bring Teddy into it. She’s ready to spill everything, I think.”

“Nice to know that the Blacks do have some heart in them.” Hope said.

“Mam, Sirius—”

“I’m not talking about Sirius, Regulus, or Andromeda,” His mother said quickly. “I believe they’re good people. Sirius just almost got himself killed to make sure Teddy was okay. I’m talking about the ones that got pulled into the family business.”

Remus nodded.

“But, I am going to give Sirius a proper talking too. I like him, I know you don’t believe me but I do. He loves Teddy with all his heart and he cares about you too.”

“Good because we’re dating,” Remus said, not even thinking about the fact that he was holding Teddy tight while he admitted it. They were meant to keep things quiet from him. Why did Sirius get him to say and do things?

To his surprises, his mother broke out in a big smile.

“Really?” Teddy asked, popping his head up. “Da, does that mean Padfoot is going to marry you?”

Remus laughed and shook his head, “No, love but I care about him a lot.” He kissed Teddy’s temple. “Mam, you don’t mind?”

“Well, now that his whole family is probably going to be jail for a long while, I don’t have much to worry about.” She shrugged. “But he’s still getting a talking to.”

“I’m sure he’s expecting it,” Lily said with a smile.

The doctor came back in with a grave look on his face, “Mister Lupin, Sirius was I rough shape when he got in from what I’m told. He had multiple breaks in his right arm and a gunshot wound to his stomach. He’s in surgery right now.”

Remus’ ears were ringing and he clung on to Teddy even tighter now. He needed to tell Sirius that Teddy was okay. He needed to let him know he was furious with him but he didn’t care because he loved him. It was so so so bloody early but he knew that he loved him. There was no way around it. Remus could only hope that he would get lucky again tonight. Maybe he would wait with the love thing. That was a lot but he could tell him how much he cared about him.

After waiting until nearly midnight, the doctor came out and informed them that Sirius was out of surgery but wouldn’t be awake for some time yet. James, Lily, and his mother all but forced Remus to go home and get a few hours of sleep, especially for Teddy. His son was already out cold against him. Remus listened and took a taxi to their flat, Teddy only waking up bleary eyed once or twice then immediately snuggling back against his father.

Once they were in the flat and Teddy was changed, Remus didn’t want to let him out of his sight too much so he put his son in the bed with him. Remus tried his best to close his eyes. He drifted off a few times but would wake and grab for his phone to make sure he didn’t miss anything about Sirius. Teddy also woke in the early morning hours after a nightmare. Remus wondered if he should bring Teddy to therapy for this. He assumed so, it was a traumatic experience. He would have to talk to Hestia about that and how to deal with it all. For now it was just making it to the morning.

“Can we go see Thirius now?” Teddy asked with a pout at seven in the morning after giving up on trying to sleep.

“We can,” Remus rubbed his eyes. He needed about four liters of coffee in his system.

“And Thnuffles?”

Remus frowned, he hadn’t even thought of the dog. Poor thing. “Snuffles was with you at the Malfoys?”

Teddy nodded, sitting up. “The mean lady hurt his paw.”

“Oh, I think we need to find out what happened to him. I’ll call some people, okay? Don’t worry.”

Teddy complied.

They got ready then headed out to St. Mungo’s. On their way, Remus texted Em to find out if she knew anything about the dog. Thankfully, by the time they arrived at the hospital, she had word that he had surgery on his paw but was doing okay. Remus let Teddy know and he was very happy. He hoped they were going to be even happier when they found out how Sirius was doing.

In the waiting room was a very tired Regulus with James, “You made it.” Remus said.

“I did. He’s awake, your mum just popped out to tell us that. She went to go get some coffee while the doctors and nurses did their thing.”

Remus felt a weight lift off his chest.

***

  
Sirius was getting very sick of waking up in strange places feeling fuzzy. This time, he was in a hospital bed. He was sure that he was high from painkillers because he could have sworn Hope Lupin was sitting on the chair next to his bed. “Sirius, are you awake?” And she was talking.

After being tortured by his cousin, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be scolded by his boyfriend’s mother. God, how could Remus want to be his boyfriend any longer? He couldn’t possibly still want him? Sirius got Teddy kidnapped. Oh god, “Where’s Teddy?”

“Teddy’s okay, dear, he’s just fine. He’s with Remus right now. Are you okay?”

“Are you going to yell at me if I say I am?”

“No, I’ll wait until you’re not drugged up on painkillers. What you did was incredibly stupid—”

“I thought you weren’t going to yell at me.”

“I’m not yelling, I’m just talking,” She brushed a hand across his forehead. “What you did was incredibly stupid and you should have left it to the experts but I know you did it for Teddy. Now, if you do something like that again, you won’t end up in the hospital.”

“You’re very comforting,” Sirius snickered.

“The doctor is coming back in a minute. He popped in to say he was grabbing something.”

“Where is Remus?” Sirius asked.

“He’s on his way with Teddy. We sent him home last night, they were both so tired. Your brother just got in as well, they’ll probably get here at the same time.” She looked at her phone.

“You sent him home last — you stayed the night,” Sirius asked, looking down at his arm. It was in a cast from his hand up above his elbow. Bella was working on breaking every single bone in one hand then she was going to move to the other. Sirius passed out from the pain at some point but came to when the cavalry came to the rescue. The last thing Sirius remembered, was Bella standing over him and a gunshot. That was probably the pain in his abdomen.

“James stayed last night. I came by a few hours ago so he could go and pick your brother up at the airport.”

“Why are you—”

“My son and grandchild care about you deeply, so you must be an amazing person, Sirius.”

Sirius’ eyes welled with tears, “I don’t think I deserve them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Sirius.” Hope tutted then moved to get a tissue for him. “Of course you deserve them and they deserve you. All this that happened, you’re going to have to work to together and it will be hard at times, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the work.”

Sirius let Hope wipe his eyes as he thought about what he could possibly say to Remus. The weight of Teddy being taken away was so much on him, he couldn’t imagine how Remus felt. He couldn’t imagine how Teddy was feeling. Sirius didn’t know how they were going to make it.

Eventually the doctor’s came to check his injuries. Apparently he was going to have to do a lot of PT on his arm. Fucking Bella. He was also going to need to stay in the hospital for at least a week because the gunshot wound was in his abdomen and had done some damage to his liver and kidneys. It looked like he was going to be spending a long time resting and not doing much.

When the doctor left, Sirius wondered who would be the first to come in. He hoped that it was his brother because that was an easy talk. Maybe Hope would come back and ask him who he wanted to see first. Of course he had no such luck because Remus, with dark bags under his eyes and messy caramel color curls came into the room. Sirius thought he would be nervous but he felt suddenly calm. He wanted Remus to come over and hug him.

“Thank god you’re okay,” Remus said in a hoarse voice, sitting carefully on the edge of his bed. “I’m going kill you once you get better.”

“Your mum’s going to yell at me too, though she already gave me a stern talking to,” Sirius tried to sound as light as possible

Remus took the fingers on his good hand and gave them a squeeze. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“I’m an idiot but I thought they wouldn’t give Teddy back.”

“I was worried about the same thing to be honest, even if I have faith in the people I work with, it didn’t look like a good situation. Your cousin, Narcissa, she is about to rat on the family and Riddle.”

“Shite,” Sirius was shocked. He had banked everything on hoping she’d help him and she actually did. Sirius was glad she had some integrity left in her. “I asked her to make sure he didn’t get hurt. I’m glad she had a heart.”

“Me too,” Remus said wiped a hand under his eye.

“Remus, I — I’m sorry.”

“I know you are, Sirius and I’m sure we’re going to have plenty of conversations about what we need to do and deal with but right now, let’s just be happy that it worked out.”

“You still want to be with me?”

“Of course I still want to be with you.” Remus said as if Sirius was mad to think any other way. “We said the other day it wasn’t going to be easy. Shite, this is the worst thing that could probably happen the first few days of dating. I think, if we can overcome this our relationship will be solid.”

Sirius shook his head, “You’re amazing. I thought I was going to have to go back to The States after this all. I didn’t think anyone would want anything to do with me.”

“We all care about you, Sirius. We know you were trying to help even if it was the daftest thing you could do.” Remus leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “We’ll have a lot of time to sit around and talk after this. I think you need to relax right now for now. Do you want to see Teddy and your brother? Regulus is entertaining him right now with my mum.”

“Please,” Sirius said. “I really could use a snuggle with Teddy.”

Remus smiled and nodded, “I’ll get them.” With a dry kiss on Sirius’ lips he stood up. “Oh, ah, I told Teddy and my mother that we’re dating, by the way.”

Sirius’ eyes widened, “Really?”

“Mmmhmm, it sort of happened — just like everything seems to do with you.”

He watched Remus walk away, and couldn’t believe any of this. He couldn’t believe just three days ago, he and Remus had got their acts together and started officially seeing one another. He couldn’t believe that everything that happened with Riddle, his family, and Teddy had only happened in just one day. It seemed like it was weeks.

Sirius nearly sobbed when Teddy came flying into the room yelling, “PADFOOT!!!”. He looked to Remus to help him on to the bed as Regulus walked in the door.

“Ted, you have to be very careful. Don’t crawl on Sirus, he’s got some boo boos.” Remus deposited Sirius on his good side.

“Mini, hey, I told you we’d be okay.” Sirius wrapped his arm around Teddy, who leaned into him.

“But you’re hurt.”

“I know, but I’m going to be just fine,” Sirius was glad he didn’t break his promise to Teddy. He was also happy that he didn’t have to leave for The States, even if there was still something in his brain telling him he should go because was just going to ruin Teddy and Remus’ lives.

“Snuffles has a boo boo too. Da said he hurt his paw and they fixed at the vet’s.”

Sirius groaned, he completely forgot about his dog. He felt like a horrible owner.

“He can’t go upstairs for a while according to Em but he’s brilliant otherwise. Lily and James have already offered to take him in.” Remus informed Sirius.

“My place has a lift.”

“You’re not going to stay at yours, you idiot.” Regulus laughed. “By the way, I’m happy you’re all right. I didn’t want to ruin the moment.”

“Thanks Reggie, you didn’t have to come all the way here.”

“Well, you did something drastic and stupid. I needed to make sure it was all good. I also want to help you get rid of Grimmauld for once and for all. Don’t worry about the family stuff for now, as much as you can. I’m finishing the semester online, my professors are cool with it. It’s nearly done anyhow.”

“Since that’s sorted, ah, where am I staying if I’m not staying at my flat?”

“You’re staying at mine,” Remus said without question, putting a hand on his leg. “You’re going to need someone to look after you. I’m taking a couple of weeks off from work to regroup and make sure we’re all good. Then my mam has offered to take care of you.”

“Your mam is something else.”

“Oh, don’t you know it,” Remus laughed as Teddy snuggled further against Sirius.

He was very lucky for so many different reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter and the epilogue! This should be all posted by the end of the week. Thank you for reading so far. I had no idea this was going to take me this way but I'm so happy with it.


	12. Chapter 12

Remus came home from his first day back at work excited to see Teddy and Sirius. They were three weeks post-incident of Teddy being kidnapped and Sirius nearly being killed. The first week was mostly spent in the hospital. Thankfully, Sirius didn’t have any type of complications, so he was let out as quickly as they could. That meant, he was headed for Remus’ flat after the week’s stay. It wasn’t even a question in his mind where Sirius would go to heal, even though Regulus was going to be around.

The only issue was getting up the stairs to Remus’ flat, which he took care of by carrying Sirius up. Sirius looked embarrassed at the fact but then told Remus when he was feeling better the man needed to throw him over his shoulder to take him away and have his way with him. Remus told he would do just that once his wound was healed up properly. James, who was over helping to get things settled, heard this and made noises of disgust then told them both how happy he was they were together.

Teddy made sure that Sirius was surrounded by pillows and let him have his favorite stuffy of a llama at all times. Those two weeks were spent in bed watching movies and shows together or they would read to Teddy or play a game. Sirius took short walks around the flat. Remus learned how to help change his dressing and Teddy said the wound looked ‘neat’. Remus thought it looked disgusting but he had a strong stomach.

“I’m home,” He called out to the flat. He knew his mam was over but he wasn’t sure if Regulus or any of the Potters were coming by. Effie and Monty Potter, who lived mostly in Mumbai now, were coming back to their London residence for a few months. They cared a lot for Sirius, so they were also worried about the man and how he was healing.

“Hi, cariad, how was your day?” His mam asked as he came around the corner. She was sitting on the sofa and Sirius was propped up on the other end. Teddy was coloring on the floor.

“Fine, nothing much happened. I think they’re keeping the caseload light.” Remus said.

He hadn’t realized all the emotions and anxieties he would feel after Teddy’s kidnapping and Sirius’ disappearance. Sirius and Teddy were going through those things as well. Remus took Teddy to see a child psychologist for the first time the week before and she had suggested that Remus seek his own therapy. So, he had planned an appointment with someone who worked with his department. Sirius had someone he saw back in The States and talked to her on the phone from time to time but was going to see one in person when he was able to move around a bit better.

“That’s for the best,” He mam said. “I made a stew tonight, Sirius’ request. Regulus stopped by earlier and was saying that Effie and Monty are home. I was thinking of having the Potters and Regulus over. I’d invite Marlene and Dorcas as well but do you think there’s enough room?”

“There’s plenty of room in the flat. We can’t do some fancy sit down thing.” Remus said, sitting on the floor against the sofa. Teddy scooted over to give him a hug then went back to coloring. “Is Sirius up for that?”

“Sure, I’m going stir crazy.” Sirius snickered, resting his good hand on Remus’ shoulder.

“I’ll talk to the others then.” His mam got off the sofa. “I’m going home. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Be good.” She went around and gave them all kisses on the cheek before leaving them for the night.

“How’d day one with Hope go?” Remus chuckled.

“Great, she’s brilliant. She was telling about how she and your dad used to travel everywhere.” Sirius moved his fingers up to Remus’ caramel colored curls.

“She didn’t drive you mad?”

“No, the opposite, really.” Sirius said.

Remus closed his eyes as Sirius ran his fingers through his hair lightly. He stayed there feeling completely relaxed until his stomach started to growl for food.

Since Sirius and Teddy already ate, he fed himself. After, he put Teddy to bed and joined Sirius on the sofa to watch telly. They were only less than a month into their relationship and it felt like they were a few years in. It could have to do with the fact that Sirius was practically a part of the family before Remus even realized he had feelings. Maybe it was because they had gone through something horrible together and came out all right. Or it could have to do with the fact they’ve been living together for two weeks already. It was probably the combination.

“I love you, you know?” Remus said. He hadn’t told Sirius this yet.

Sirius, who was resting against him turned his head and smiled, “I know. I love you too.”

Remus kissed him slowly, trying to move into a better position so that he wasn’t craning his neck. “I could have told you that a long time ago but I waited. I didn’t want it to be too early.”

“I moved in after just one shag. Well, multiple shags, actually. One night, I moved in after one night.”

“These are strange circumstances.” Remus pressed his lips to Sirius’ forehead.

“I’m sorry I brought them with me,” Sirius kissed his cheek.

“I know you are, Pads. I know.” He paused. “I’m going to see a therapist.”

“Good, it’ll be nice. I think it’ll help.”

“I think that since you were both okay—”

“Snuffles too,” Sirius laughed.

“The three of you were okay,” Remus amended. “I thought that I would just be fine too.”

“I know, it’s hard.”

“It’s not your fault though. You still shouldn’t have gone to the Malfoy’s but you couldn’t have prevented what happened. You can’t control them, just as much as they can’t control you.” Remus rubbed his good arm.

“Thank you, Remus,” Sirius closed his eyes and sighed. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Remus found his lips again. “I’m never letting you go.”

Remus knew months ago that Sirius would change his life. He knew he was important, but he didn’t realize how important.

***

Sirius fidgeted in the chair in the chamber he had been led to. Narcissa was there for some hearing. Sirius wasn’t up on all the legal stuff but he wanted to go to it to see what was happening. She had practically sunk the ship of the Riddle/Black Empire herself, along with her husband Lucius. She was going to be going away for a very long time still. Sirius was somewhat conflicted because yes, she was a Death Eater but she kept Teddy safe. He could have been in her position as well.

The reason Sirius was asked to meet Narcissa in the room was unknown to him but he accepted when he was asked. Thankfully it was about to be answered since the person representing her and his cousin came into the room. Cissy still looked as prim and proper as ever, even though she was probably spending time in a place that was anything but.

They greeted one another and the man introduced himself as Fudge. Narcissa looked unflappable and made of steel but Sirius could see some sadness in her eyes. He wondered what she was feeling inside. “Sirius, I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?” Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“You— this is very hard for me to say and I don’t expect you to say yes but I thought it would be worth the shot.”

Sirius frowned.

“Sirius, I’m going to be going to prison for a long time. I wanted to… I do have a boy you were right and that’s why I couldn’t stand what was happening. I,” She shook her head. “Would you take care of him, Draco? He’s about Teddy’s age. He’s already staying at a stranger’s now. I can’t see him growing up without some family.”

“We’re family now?” Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“We always were but—”

“You listened to the bullshite.” Sirius snapped at her.

“I won’t deny that I’ve made mistakes. The one thing I don’t want to make a mistake on is with Draco’s life.”

“Why me?” He couldn’t understand. He was the shunned cousin who didn’t want to take over the Black criminal empire. It was supposed to be all his, but he turned out to be a teacher of tiny little humans. He was much more likely to have paint on his hands than blood. His family didn’t like that. Well… it seemed the Cissy did now.

“The way you were with Teddy. You just, you cared and I could tell. You don’t have to say yes, Sirius and I don’t want you to feel guilty otherwise.”

Sirius rubbed his face. He probably would feel guilty letting a kid go into the system. It wasn’t his fault that his parents were shitty. Sirius could understand that. It wasn’t Sirius’ fault he came from the same type of family. His just didn’t get caught but he was still nearly alone in the world. If he didn’t have the Potters, Al, and Regulus, he wasn’t sure how he would have ended up. “I need to go talk to my boyfriend.”

Narcissa nodded.

Sirius left with the information to contact the social worker in charge of Draco’s case. He took the Tube back to Remus’ flat where Regulus was watching Teddy and Snuffles. Really, it was his flat too. He didn’t need looking after anymore but he didn’t want to leave. Teddy and Remus didn’t seem to want him to leave either.

Regulus was on the floor playing a game with Teddy. Snuffles was on his cupcake bed. They all looked up at him when he came in but only Teddy got up to hug him. “Hi mini, having fun with Regulus?”

“Loads!”

“Good.” Sirius kissed him on the top of the head.

Sirius wanted to tell Reg about what had happened with Narcissa but he didn’t want to do it in front of Teddy. That topic was a little too difficult for him to deal with. He didn’t want Teddy knowing about it unless he did decide to take Draco in. So, he kept his mouth shut about it until Teddy was in bed and he and Remus were getting ready for their bedtime.

“What’s on your mind, Pads?” Remus asked him, leaning against the counter as Sirius took out his contacts.

“I’m that easy to read?”

“You know that answer, so what’s going on?” Remus kissed his t-shirt covered shoulder.

“You know how I went to Narcissa’s thing?”

“Yeah, should you have stayed home?” Remus’ brows knitted together in concern for Sirius. He had expressed his worry about Sirius going to any of the trials the other day.

“No, I was okay. But she— she asked me to take care of her son, Draco.”

Remus raised his eyebrows, “Really?”

“I think I had the same look on my face.”

“What’d you say?”

“That I needed to talk to you.”

“I can’t tell you what to do, love.” Remus said as Sirius put his glasses on. “How do you feel about it?”

“Conflicted. I don’t — I didn’t think I was going to be getting a child out of this kidnapping that wasn’t Teddy,” Sirius scoffed.

“If you took him in, I’d care for him just as much as you care for Teddy. Don’t worry about me,” Remus took him by the hand and led them into their room. “It’s up to you.”

“Where would he stay? I’d have to move back to my flat. Which is Reggie’s flat.”

Since returning to London three months ago, Regulus had decided he wanted to stay there. He was now in the process of transferring schools to complete his graduate studies. Regulus said it was because he missed the city but Sirius had to wonder if it was at least a little to do with the fact that he and Bill Weasley had seemed to hit it off and were now dating.

“We can clean up the office slash what was supposed to be your room,” Remus snickered.

“We’ve only been dating for three-ish months. We’re going to add another kid into this?”

“I know. I don’t mind. I’d hate to see a kid who can have a good home lose it.” Remus let go of his hand and they both crawled into bed together.

“I feel like I should meet him.”

“If you meet him, you know it’s going to be all over, right? You’re going to want to make sure that he’s okay. You’re going to want to protect him, you can’t help yourself.” Remus said, picking up his book on the nightstand.

Sirius groaned and put his hands over his face. He had been wondering what was going on with Cissy’s kid since he was in the hospital, if he was being honest. Now that he was being asked this by Narcissa, he knew that he wasn’t going to get the kid out of his mind. It would be years from now and he’d be thinking about him. “I’m going to do it, aren’t I?”

“Only if you want to, Sirius.”

“I think I want too,” Sirius sighed, looking over at his boyfriend who was sitting there with a book on his lap. “Oh god, I’m going to adopt a child.”

Remus smiled at him, “You’re going to give him the loving upbringing you missed out on if you do.”

“Now I can’t say no.” Sirius was going to adopt a damn child. “It won’t be easy.”

“We’re not easy type of people are we?” Remus paused. “Well, you’re easy but in a different way.”

“Oi! We’re talking about kids, not how fast I’d be on my knees for you.” Sirius swatted at him.

Remus laughed and set his book aside, “No matter how hard it is, I think we’ve already overcome some hard stuff. Draco would have a lot of love if you brought him into our family.”

“Our family?” Sirius softened.

“Come off it, you know we’re a family. Us and Teddy. You we got Reg, my mam, all the Potters. It’s a family”

“It’s a bloody family,” Sirius smiled and moved to straddle Remus. “When I was a kid, I was always jealous of everyone else and their average mums and dads. I know everyone goes through shite now and no one is that I’m older but god, did I want one of those kids lives? I just wanted a real family who cared about one another.”

Remus gave him a watery smile then pulled him down for a kiss. “You’re going to to have one now.”

Sirius wasn’t sure what to say so his lips found Remus’ again. Just as things were heating up, Teddy yelled for his dad and Padfoot then came bursting into the door. Sirius fell to the bed with a laugh.

“Da, there’s a monster under the bed.”

“That sounds like a Padfoot job,” Sirius said as Teddy came around to his side of the bed. “I’ll take care of it, come on.”

Yes, he wanted to be a dad and he wanted to be one with this brilliant family.

***

Remus watched Sirius as he chewed at his bottom lip. They were waiting to meet Draco at the social workers’ office. Remus wanted to be hesitant at the idea of Sirius having custody of Narcissa’s son. She was one of the people who took Teddy. But she had also protected him. He knew that Sirius wanted to do it, even if the man didn’t want to admit it at first. Sirius wanted to make sure that Draco grew up loved in a life at Sirius wished for as a kid.

When the door opened, Remus squeezed Sirius’ hand then looked to the door. Nina, the social worker, was holding hands with a small boy with white blonde hair. According to Sirius, he was Harry’s age, 5— almost 6, but looked a bit smaller than his godson.

“Draco, this is Sirius and Remus. They wanted to meet you.”

Draco looked at them with sad blue eyes. Remus wanted to hug the boy.

“Hi Draco, I’m Remus,” He moved to the edge of his seat as Draco came over to them, looking very hesitant.

“And you’re Sirius? Mummy’s told me about you.”

“Yes?”

“She said you’re smart.”

Sirus laughed, “I guess.”

“She says I’m smart too.”

“I’m sure you are,” Sirius nodded. “Want to tell me somethings you know?”

Draco nodded, then took a seat on the sofa next to Sirius and began to talk.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR READING AND COMMENTING! I loved this fic so much. I'm so happy that I have so many positive comments on it too. It's just so lovely. Thank you!
> 
> I would love to revisit it again in the future, maybe filling in the blanks of Draco joining the Lupins as well as the wedding but I'm on to other projects now. I have a Valentine's Day fic planned (the boys meet on a dating app. Sirius wants a V-Day date and Remus refuses to go on a date before Valentine's Day because of the holiday) and WSBB is coming up fast! Ahhhh. Learning From Experience also needs an update but it might be a little longer because as I've mentioned I'm listening to the books on my commute but I've been out sick recently and haven't made much progress on GoF. But after GoF it will probably be updating a bit quicker.

The wedding had gone off just as they wanted. Their friends and family were there. Teddy and Draco were the best men. Lily’s new baby girl was the flower girl (meaning Lily carried her and did the flower thing herself but it was so adorable). The reception was sweet. It was all held at the Potter’s estate outside of the city, they insisted on hosting when Remus and Sirius finally got around to getting married.

Okay, not finally but it felt like finally for many reasons. They had only been together officially for just over a year but a lot had happened in that time. The kidnapping and Sirius nearly being killed. Then Sirius moved in unofficially to Remus’ flat so he could care for him. Then Sirius adopted Teddy and Sirius officially moved int the flat. Remus hesitated for when he thought about asking Sirius to marry him after six months. It had felt like an entire lifetime that they had been together but it was just a short time. His mother was the one to tell him just to do it.

So, they were now married and were in the process of both being official parents of both the boys. Remus was thrilled. For a long time, he thought he would end up alone with just Teddy to watch him get old and grey. Now he had someone he wanted by his side for the rest of his life. He couldn’t imagine life without Sirius in it. He couldn’t imagine life without Draco now, either. They were a family.

Their friends and family insisted that they take a honeymoon. Remus and Sirius thought about bringing the boys but James and Lily told them they were going to have a kid-free week and enjoy their honeymoon properly. “Have all the damn kinky sex you want and do it as loudly as you please.” James had insisted.

Remus and Sirius were in the middle of taking that to heart. Sirius was tied up, rather prettily if Remus said so himself, on the bed in the cottage they had rented in France. They were outside of Paris but close enough to visit. It was beautiful. The fields of France stretched out in front of them. Flowers were blooming in the yard. It was not as impressive as his husband, of course.

Sirius’ hands were bound together at the wrists, and tied to the headboard above him with the soft red rope they always used when they did this. There was enough slack so Remus could turn Sirius over as he pleased. His legs were tied so he was kneeling. There were four loops and knots around his legs. Inside Sirius was his favorite plug, vibrating on low. Sirius’ arse was red and beginning to welt from the spanking he had just received.

Sirius’ skin was flush all over too, probably because Remus was bestowing him with praise at the moment. “Look at beautiful you are. You’re doing so good, Sirius,” Remus leaned down and carefully pressed kisses to the hot flesh. “Are you all right to continue?”

“Mmm, yes sir.” Sirius said with a deeper voice than usual.

“Do you want to be untied?”

“No, sir.” Sirius around a groan as Remus reached under him to stoke his cock.

“You’re so perfect, Sirus,” Remus said then moved his hand away from his cock then went to pet his hair. He was trying to decide how he was going to have them to finish tonight.

Then he got a brilliant idea, “I’m flipping you over, okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good,” Remus got Sirius onto his back… well, on to his legs and back. Remus made sure he had some pillows under his head and neck.

“You’re going to watch me as I prepare myself. I want you to come inside me tonight.”

Sirius grinned then nodded, “Yes, sir. Can I ask a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Can you untie my hands now? I can do it for you — prepare you.”

“No, you’re going to watch,” Remus knew it would drive him absolutely mad that he couldn’t touch. “Thank you for asking.” He dropped a kiss on Sirius’ lips then reached for the lube on the nightstand.

Remus straddled Sirius’ stomach so his back was facing Sirius, “Make sure you watch.”

“I will, sir.”

Remus slowly circled his hole with a lubed index finger and he heard Sirius let out a groan. “Good boys are usually quiet unless spoken to.”

“Yes— yes sir.” Sirius said was Remus teased himself.

When he pressed the finger inside himself, he heard Sirius let out the faintest whimper but Remus pretend not to hear. Remus wished he had a mirror so he could watch Sirius as he fucked himself on his own fingers. He knew Sirius just wanted to touch because he was so tactile. Remus relished in that fact and was sure to make a big show of it. He let out long, luxurious moans and fucked himself just like he was going to on Sirius’ cock when he was ready.

As soon as he was ready and done torturing his poor husband, he turned around and got the lube again for Sirius.

“You can be as loud as you want now, but you’re not to come until I say.” Remus instructed as he pressed the head of Sirius’ now slick cock against him.

“Yes, sir.” Sirius said, sounding like he was trying very hard to speak.

“Good,” Remus leaned down and nipped at his bottom lip before kissing him.

Slowly, he sank down on to Sirius’ length. So slow, his legs were shaking with the effort of not going too fast and just having Sirius all the way inside of him. “It feels so good to have you in me, Sirius. Almost as good as it feels to be in you,” He braced himself on Sirius’ chest then began to move his hips. Under him, Sirius looked like a debauched Baroque style painting with his black hair and pale skin on the red sheets.

It didn’t take long for Remus to get to the edge. They had been at this for a long time now. “Come on, Sirius. Come in me,” Remus said, gasping and frantically working a hand over himself. He could feel the warmth pooling in his gut.

“Fuck, Moony, oh,” Sirius’ body jerked under him and his hands clasped together as he filled Remus. A few strokes later, Remus tipped over the edge with Sirius’ name on his lips.

Once Remus got his head back, he went to taking care of Sirius. He pressed kisses to his face then he carefully pulled the plug out of him. When that was done, he went to undoing his knots and setting aside the rope.

“I’m going to get a flannel and some water for you okay?” Remus nuzzled his cheek for a moment. He also very much needed to clean the stickiness between his legs before it got too uncomfortable.

Sirius just nodded and hummed, stretched out on the bed. Remus ran a finger along an indentation from the rope on his thigh before leaving. He went as quickly as he could then returned to the bed to wipe off Sirius’ stomach. He placed a gentle kiss on the scar on his tummy then settled in to give him a cuddle.

“I love you.”

“I love you,” Sirius said sighing and huddling deeper into Remus’ embrace.

***

Sirius yawned and stretched out. His body was so sore but in wonderful ways that reminded him of the last few nights. It was only the second night of their honeymoon and Sirius was plaintive from the sex they had been having. He wondered how much like mush he was going to be like by the time he had to go back home. With how his arse felt, he didn’t even want to think about sitting on an airplane.

As he got out of bed, Sirius smiled to himself, remembering that he was Remus’ husband. He loved the man more than he ever thought he could love anyone. He loved Teddy and Draco too that he wondered if maybe he never fell in love before because he had to save up everything in him for his future family. He was more than happy about that.

“You’re up, I was going to bring you breakfast in bed,” Remus frowned as he held an empty pan in his hand. He was in a pair of jogger’s and Sirius’ Harvard shirt.

“It’s okay, I can sit here and watch you cook,” Sirius kissed him quickly. “Well, maybe not sit.”

Remus set the pan down and wrapped his arms around him, “Sorry. I should have stopped sooner.”

“Don’t be. I could have told you to stop at any time.” Sirius shook his head. “We don’t get to do that much at home. The sound of your slaps are far too loud.” He laughed as Remus began to kiss and bite at his neck. “We do plenty of other fun things. You know how to treat me very well, Mister Lupin.”

“You treat me well too, Mr. Lupin.” Remus slid a hand under Sirius’ shirt. Yes, they had taken Remus’ last name. Sirius wanted to be rid of the Black name for once and for all. “I’m so happy I’m your husband.”

“Not as happy as I’m yours.”

“I think it’s a tie.” Remus laughed.

“Let me help you cook. I know you’re inept at that.” Sirius said, rest his head on Remus’ shoulder.

“What a nice thing to say to the man you just married.”

“I just don’t want food poisoning, do you?”

“Good point. I’ll help you though.”

“Of course.”

So, they went to work on making breakfast together. Sirius realized at that moment that he missed Teddy and Draco so much more than he thought. This was the first time he had been away from them for more than a night. Usually they would be running around the kitchen or causing some havoc somewhere in the flat. But it was good havoc. Sirius would never exchange that havoc for anything, especially when Remus was always there as the calm next to him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr [@marlenemckinn](https://marlenemckinn.tumblr.com)


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